Frank Claydon
Title
Frank Claydon
Description
A memorial article about Frank telling of his professional and service life.
Creator
Date
1944-08
Temporal Coverage
Language
Type
Format
One printed sheet
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
NClaydonFE220824-03
Transcription
[inserted] Aug 1944 [/inserted]
August 1944 THE RAILWAY SERVICE JOURNAL 141
TAKE UP PELMANISM
FOR
Courage and Clear-Thinking
The Grasshopper Mind
YOU know the man with a “Grasshopper Mind” as well as you know yourself. His mind nibbles at everything and masters nothing.
At home in the evening he tunes in the wireless – gets tired of it – then glances though a magazine – can’t get interested. Finally, unable to concentrate on anything, he either goes to the pictures or falls asleep in the chair. At the office he always takes up the easiest thing first, puts it down when it gets hard, and starts something else. Jumps from one thing to another all the time.
There are thousands of these people with “Grasshopper Minds” in the world. In fact they are the very people who do the world’s most tiresome tasks – and get but a pittance for their work. They do the world’s clerical work, and the routine drudgery. Day after day, year after year – endlessly – they hang on to the jobs that are smallest-salaried, longest-houred, least interesting, and poorest-futured.
What is Holding You Back?
If you have a “Grasshopper Mind” you know that this is true. And you know why it is true. Even the blazing sun can’t burn a hole in a piece of tissue paper unless its rays are focused and concentrated on one spot! A mind that balks at sticking to one thing for more than a few minutes surely cannot be depended upon to get you anywhere in your years of life!
[boxed][italics] Half fees for serving members of His Majesty’s Forces (Apply for Services Enrolment Form) [/italics][/boxed]
The tragedy of it all is this: you know that you have within you the intelligence, the earnestness and the ability that can take you right to the high place you want to reach in life! What is wrong? What’s holding you back? Just one fact – one scientific fact. That is all. Because, as Science says, you are using only one-tenth of your real brain-power!
What Can You Do About It?
That is the question you are asking yourself. Here is the answer.
Take up Pelmanism now! A course of Pelmanism brings out the mind’s latent powers and develops them to the highest point of efficiency. It banishes such weaknesses and defects as Mind Wandering, Inferiority and Indecision which interfere with the effective working powers of the mind and in their place develops strong, positive vital qualities such as Optimism, Concentration, and Reliability, all qualities of the utmost value in any walk of life.
The Pelman Course is fully described in a book entitled [italics] The Science of Success [/italics]. The Course is simple and interesting and takes up very little time; you can enrol on the most convenient terms. The book will be sent you, gratis and post free, on application to:
PELMAN INSTITUTE
[italics] (Established over 40 years) [/italics]
169 Albion House, New Oxford St. London, W.C.1
Frank Claydon [photograph]
HIS many friends, both inside the Association and in the Labour Movement, will be grieved to hear of the death of Flying Officer Frank Claydon, who had been a member of the Head Office staff of the R.C.A. since 1937. He was reported missing from air operations over Germany on January 14th, 1944, and has now been officially presumed killed. A great many members of the Association who were proud to claim friendship with him will realise what a loss the R.C.A. and the wider Labour Movement has sustained. Delegates to last year’s Annual Conference will remember the tall, handsome R.A.F. Officer who spent his leave at Blackpool and followed the Conference proceedings with such interest.
On leaving school Frank Claydon entered the service of the L.N.E. Railway Company and was eventually employed in the Advertising Department at King’s Cross. Early in his railway career he joined the King’s Cross No. 1 Branch of the R.C.A., taking a very active and effective part in its work, particularly as organising secretary and delegate to the London Political Advisory Council. He also represented the branch at Annual Conference. Whilst still in the railway service he married Violet Masters, who was also on the staff of the Advertising Department at King’s Cross. On moving his home to Totte[illegible letters]ge he transferred his membership from the St. Pancras to the Barnet Labour Party, and was its Secretary for four years until he volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1941. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the St. Albans Divisional Labour Party, and was elected Labour Councillor for the East Arkley Ward of the Barnet Urban District Council in 1938.
Frank Claydon qualified as an Observer in the R.A.F. at an Air Training School in South Africa, and after being torpedoed 1,000 miles from land on the return journey, commenced operations with Bomber Command in this country in June 1943. His many raids on Germany included record breaking ones on Hamburg and Berlin. He held the gunnery record at the South African School and the bombing record at his Station in this country.
He had many gifts and talents, some of them not fully developed, all of which, with his deep-seated ideals, were dedicated to the service of our Movement. At the beginning of the war he held – very sincerely – strong pacifist opinions, but when the logic of events led him to take another line he scorned the possibility of a safe job and, despite his age – he was then nearly 33 – volunteered and qualified for air crew duties. How he hated war! How he hated the necessity for taking part in it! There was just one thing he hated more – the thought of Nazism interfering with the building up of that better world for which, through the R.C.A., through his municipal work and through the Labour Party, he was striving in a very practical way, with the able and active assistance of his devoted wife, herself an ex-member of the Association. Frank did not shirk the risk of having to die for his fellows, but how much happier and how much more useful he would have been had he been able to continue to live for them. We can ill afford to lose men of his calibre. It brings home to us the tragic waste of war.
He will be sadly missed at R.C.A. Head Office, where his high qualities earned the warm affection of all his colleagues. Our deep sympathy is extended to Mrs. Claydon and her two daughters, Patricia Ann age four years, and Frances Jane age three months.
[advertisement]
August 1944 THE RAILWAY SERVICE JOURNAL 141
TAKE UP PELMANISM
FOR
Courage and Clear-Thinking
The Grasshopper Mind
YOU know the man with a “Grasshopper Mind” as well as you know yourself. His mind nibbles at everything and masters nothing.
At home in the evening he tunes in the wireless – gets tired of it – then glances though a magazine – can’t get interested. Finally, unable to concentrate on anything, he either goes to the pictures or falls asleep in the chair. At the office he always takes up the easiest thing first, puts it down when it gets hard, and starts something else. Jumps from one thing to another all the time.
There are thousands of these people with “Grasshopper Minds” in the world. In fact they are the very people who do the world’s most tiresome tasks – and get but a pittance for their work. They do the world’s clerical work, and the routine drudgery. Day after day, year after year – endlessly – they hang on to the jobs that are smallest-salaried, longest-houred, least interesting, and poorest-futured.
What is Holding You Back?
If you have a “Grasshopper Mind” you know that this is true. And you know why it is true. Even the blazing sun can’t burn a hole in a piece of tissue paper unless its rays are focused and concentrated on one spot! A mind that balks at sticking to one thing for more than a few minutes surely cannot be depended upon to get you anywhere in your years of life!
[boxed][italics] Half fees for serving members of His Majesty’s Forces (Apply for Services Enrolment Form) [/italics][/boxed]
The tragedy of it all is this: you know that you have within you the intelligence, the earnestness and the ability that can take you right to the high place you want to reach in life! What is wrong? What’s holding you back? Just one fact – one scientific fact. That is all. Because, as Science says, you are using only one-tenth of your real brain-power!
What Can You Do About It?
That is the question you are asking yourself. Here is the answer.
Take up Pelmanism now! A course of Pelmanism brings out the mind’s latent powers and develops them to the highest point of efficiency. It banishes such weaknesses and defects as Mind Wandering, Inferiority and Indecision which interfere with the effective working powers of the mind and in their place develops strong, positive vital qualities such as Optimism, Concentration, and Reliability, all qualities of the utmost value in any walk of life.
The Pelman Course is fully described in a book entitled [italics] The Science of Success [/italics]. The Course is simple and interesting and takes up very little time; you can enrol on the most convenient terms. The book will be sent you, gratis and post free, on application to:
PELMAN INSTITUTE
[italics] (Established over 40 years) [/italics]
169 Albion House, New Oxford St. London, W.C.1
Frank Claydon [photograph]
HIS many friends, both inside the Association and in the Labour Movement, will be grieved to hear of the death of Flying Officer Frank Claydon, who had been a member of the Head Office staff of the R.C.A. since 1937. He was reported missing from air operations over Germany on January 14th, 1944, and has now been officially presumed killed. A great many members of the Association who were proud to claim friendship with him will realise what a loss the R.C.A. and the wider Labour Movement has sustained. Delegates to last year’s Annual Conference will remember the tall, handsome R.A.F. Officer who spent his leave at Blackpool and followed the Conference proceedings with such interest.
On leaving school Frank Claydon entered the service of the L.N.E. Railway Company and was eventually employed in the Advertising Department at King’s Cross. Early in his railway career he joined the King’s Cross No. 1 Branch of the R.C.A., taking a very active and effective part in its work, particularly as organising secretary and delegate to the London Political Advisory Council. He also represented the branch at Annual Conference. Whilst still in the railway service he married Violet Masters, who was also on the staff of the Advertising Department at King’s Cross. On moving his home to Totte[illegible letters]ge he transferred his membership from the St. Pancras to the Barnet Labour Party, and was its Secretary for four years until he volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1941. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the St. Albans Divisional Labour Party, and was elected Labour Councillor for the East Arkley Ward of the Barnet Urban District Council in 1938.
Frank Claydon qualified as an Observer in the R.A.F. at an Air Training School in South Africa, and after being torpedoed 1,000 miles from land on the return journey, commenced operations with Bomber Command in this country in June 1943. His many raids on Germany included record breaking ones on Hamburg and Berlin. He held the gunnery record at the South African School and the bombing record at his Station in this country.
He had many gifts and talents, some of them not fully developed, all of which, with his deep-seated ideals, were dedicated to the service of our Movement. At the beginning of the war he held – very sincerely – strong pacifist opinions, but when the logic of events led him to take another line he scorned the possibility of a safe job and, despite his age – he was then nearly 33 – volunteered and qualified for air crew duties. How he hated war! How he hated the necessity for taking part in it! There was just one thing he hated more – the thought of Nazism interfering with the building up of that better world for which, through the R.C.A., through his municipal work and through the Labour Party, he was striving in a very practical way, with the able and active assistance of his devoted wife, herself an ex-member of the Association. Frank did not shirk the risk of having to die for his fellows, but how much happier and how much more useful he would have been had he been able to continue to live for them. We can ill afford to lose men of his calibre. It brings home to us the tragic waste of war.
He will be sadly missed at R.C.A. Head Office, where his high qualities earned the warm affection of all his colleagues. Our deep sympathy is extended to Mrs. Claydon and her two daughters, Patricia Ann age four years, and Frances Jane age three months.
[advertisement]
Collection
Citation
The Railway Service Journal, “Frank Claydon,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 10, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/43450.