{{Short description|Australian Anglican priest and co-operative organizer}} {{about|the Australian Anglican priest|the English marine painter|Alfred Clint|the Australian cartoonist|Alfred Clint (Australian painter)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2021}} {{Portal|Christianity}}
'''William Alfred Clint''' (8 January 1906 – 21 April 1980) was an Australian priest in the Church of England in Australia (as the Anglican Church of Australia was then called). He established a number of Aboriginal co-operatives on behalf of the Australian Board of Missions, including Tranby Aboriginal College.
==Early life== Clint was born in 1906 in Wellington, New Zealand, to John William Clint, a commercial traveller, and his wife Lilian Lancaster (née Cawdery).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> The family moved to Sydney when Clint was a child,{{efn|1910 according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography; 1914 according to the Cable Clerical Index.}} and he was educated at Balmain Public School and Rozelle Junior Technical School, although he left early due to his father's unemployment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>
==Career== Clint worked for the Balmain Co-operative Society Ltd's store.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> Despite a Low Church upbringing, Clint was converted to the Anglo-Catholic Christian Socialism of Fr John Hope at Christ Church St Laurence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> In 1927 he entered St John's College, Morpeth for training for ordination, becoming a lay reader in the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Bathurst at the same time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|title=Project Canterbury: Cable Clerical Index|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=22 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522065925/http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was ordained deacon in 1929, becoming a member of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd, but retained, on his insistence, both his membership of the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Workers' Union.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> As a member of the Brotherhood he was known as Brother Alf, and served in Tottenham.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223671616 |title="SACRIFICE" |newspaper=The Sun |issue=6806 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 October 1931 |access-date=10 November 2021 |page=27 (FINAL EXTRA) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was ordained priest in 1932, remaining a member of the Brotherhood until 1935.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>
Clint was then rector of St Mary's, Weston, New South Wales (1935–1941) and St Stephen's, Portland, New South Wales (1941–1948).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> Both Weston and Portland were mining towns, and Clint had the miners at church on Sunday mornings and at Lenin meetings on Sunday evenings.<ref>Cook, Kevin, and Goodall, Heather, ''Making Change Happen: Black and White Activists talk to Kevin Cook about Aboriginal, Union and Liberation Politics'', (2013: ANU E Press), p 62.</ref> In 1938 he was granted leave from his parish,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|title=Project Canterbury: Cable Clerical Index|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=22 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522065925/http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and he worked his passage from Australia to England as a pantry boy in order to attend the Labour Party fete at Thaxted in Essex, hosted by the "Red Vicar" of Thaxted, the Revd Conrad Noel.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article192645639 |title=WORKED PASSAGE |newspaper=Daily Examiner |volume=29 |issue=9375 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 August 1938 |access-date=10 November 2021 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In 1948, he was invited by the Rt Revd Philip Strong, Bishop of New Guinea, to become co-operative adviser at Gona, Papua.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> He walked from village to village organising Christian co-operatives.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> In 1951, suffering from severe dermatitis (which "caused his skin to peel off like a mango"),<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189926989 |title=Interesting {{as written|Vis|tior [sic]}} |newspaper=The Biz |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=14 October 1959 |access-date=9 November 2021 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> he was advised against returning to the tropics and became rector of St Barnabas', South Bathurst.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>
[[File:1 Tranby in Mansfield Street.jpg|right|thumb|Tranby ]] In 1953, he was appointed director of co-operatives at the Australian Board of Missions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> At the time, ABM still had a number of Aboriginal missions, and Clint travelled around them, establishing co-operatives at Lockhart River Mission (1954), Moa Island, Torres Strait (1956), and Cabbage Tree Island (1959).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> In 1957 Fr Hope gave Clint a house, Tranby, for his work with Aborigines.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hope-john-10540|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: John Hope|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> Now (2021) called Tranby National Indigenous Adult Education and Training, Tranby is still run by the Co-operative for Aborigines Limited, founded by Clint.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tranby.edu.au/about-us/|title=Tranby: Who We Are|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>
By 1959, the Lockhart River co-operative was bankrupt due to the collapse of the trochus shell market.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> In 1960 the Rt Rev John Matthews was elected Bishop of Carpentaria; he considered Clint to be a destabilizing influence and, in 1961, banned him from entry to Anglican missions in the diocese.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> That led the ABM in 1962 to replace its co-operative department with an autonomous body, Co-operative for Aborigines Ltd, of which Clint was the general secretary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> Clint was still general secretary when he died: the morning of his death he called the staff to his bedside, and urged them to continue their work.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259474900 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=Tribune |issue=2143 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=28 May 1980 |access-date=9 November 2021 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Personal life== Clint was unmarried.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> He died in 1980; his requiem mass at Christ Church St Laurence was attended by 500 people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> He was cremated at Northern Suburbs crematorium.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|title=Project Canterbury: Cable Clerical Index|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=22 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522065925/http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Legacy== Clint was the subject of an appreciative biography by his friend, the novelist Kylie Tennant, ''Speak You So Gently'' (1959).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clint-alf-9766|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: William Alfred Clint|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> Unusually for a Christian cleric, he was the subject of a sympathetic obituary in the Communist Party of Australia's newspaper, ''Tribune''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259474900 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=Tribune |issue=2143 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=28 May 1980 |access-date=9 November 2021 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> A memorial sanctuary bell was installed at St Barnabas', South Bathurst,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|title=Project Canterbury: Cable Clerical Index|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=22 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522065925/http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/cci/|url-status=dead}}</ref> although the church was subsequently destroyed by fire in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/4563366/south-bathurst-anglican-parish-is-stronger-than-ever/|title=''Western Advocate'': "South Bathurst Anglican Parishioners are positive about the future", 3 April 2017|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> The boardroom at Tranby is named after Clint.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tranby.edu.au/rev-alf-clint-boardroom/|title=Tranby: The Rev Alf Clint Boardroom|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref>
== Notes == {{notelist}}
==References== <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clint, Alf}} Category:1906 births Category:1980 deaths Category:People educated at St John's College, Morpeth Category:Australian Anglican priests Category:Australian Anglo-Catholics Category:Anglo-Catholic socialists Category:Australian co-operative organisers Category:Religious leaders from Wellington City Category:New Zealand emigrants to Australia