The wording of a death notice in a national newspaper on 10 May 2006 was striking but apt:

DOGGETT John Clayton, CBE Barrister, God’s servant, Valiant for Truth. Died peacefully at home 7 May 2006, aged 89, dearly loved by his children and grandchildren.

This notice expresses beautifully the man John’s friends remember, but much more needs to be said, particularly in Grace, of which John was the first editor. It is time to record his influence among the churches served by this magazine and indeed his impact on the wider Christian community. John Doggett loved the gospel, believed that it was best expressed by ‘Evangelical Calvinism’, the teaching of the Puritans, Whitefield, Newton, Ryle and Spurgeon as well as the earlier Particular Baptist worthies. He had a profound sense of history: one of his treasured possessions was a rare set of Ivimey’s History of the English Baptists, which was not an ornament on his shelves, but a resource into which he had dug deeply. His legal training honed a penetrating mind, which could make him formidable in debate but coupled with a whimsical sense of humour he was a wonderful companion, able to range over wide fields of thought and behaviour, yet always with a Christian perspective. He had high standards of Christian service and could be intolerant of inefficiency, but he was more ruthless with himself than with others. He wanted a religion that could be known and felt, but insisted that it be outworked practically.

John was born into a Christian home that honoured the Calvinism fast disappearing in early twentieth century England. His roots were among the Particular Baptist Churches; one of his forebears was the founder of Forest Fold Chapel, Crowborough. But in his early days the family was attending Grove Chapel, Camberwell. During his childhood they moved to Tamworth Road Chapel, Croydon, where the pastor, George Rose, was drawing a large congregation. Mr Rose was to have a profound impact upon John. He preached the experimental Calvinism beloved by the Gospel Standard churches amongst whom he ministered, but resisted a growing exclusiveness in that group at that time. John could recall Rose’s stand against sectarianism in 1934. Rose, previously a Black Country foundry worker, had been influenced by two outstanding Anglican Calvinists, James Ormiston, of Old Hill Staffordshire and later by Thomas Davis, vicar of St John’s Harborne.

John’s conversion was a gradual experience in his teenage years, and George Rose’s ministry played a part. John recalled with gratitude his sermons from John’s Gospel with warm exhortations to his hearers to make their calling and election sure. He was a good pastor and John as a seeker was helped by walks with him across the common. He declared, ‘George Rose was particularly good at dealing with the doubts one had.’ During his adolescent years John made a point of reading Pilgrim’s Progress every year and to the end of his days remained a lover of Bunyan.

On leaving school John Doggett drawn to the legal profession, read for the bar as a member of the Middle Temple. He passed his final examinations in the summer of 1939 as war was threatening. He remembered witnessing to a fellow student who died in the conflict. Recalling their parting he said, ‘I am sure he was not far from the kingdom.’ John’s own war service intervened and in 1941 he was called to the Bar in his absence.

While working in the Estate Duty Office of the Inland Revenue, John met Margaret Bond, the daughter of a Congregational minister. Within six weeks he knew that he wanted to marry her, but it took him eighteen months to win her consent! They married in 1942. In the early years of marriage they attended an Evangelical Congregational chapel not far from the house in which he ended his days. John, now commissioned in the Signals, was sent to Italy in the year after their marriage. In a tough campaign with considerable loss of life, John was mentioned in despatches. He came through without injury. By the end of the War he was a Major, legal adviser to the Commander in Chief in Austria.

Even more significant were John’s Christian contacts. Major Arthur Holcombe from Uckfield and John started a Christian newsletter which was distributed throughout the Italian and Central Mediterranean theatres. John had taken his Greek New Testament with him and the letters were used for Biblical exposition as well as for news. Friendships reached across denominational divisions. Before demobilisation a number of these men met and John addressed them: ‘We’ve been together here, and now we are going home. I shall be serving the Lord in my Strict Baptist regiment. I know some of you belong to other regiments, but the vital thing is that you don’t lose sight of the unity of the Spirit the Lord has been pleased to give us here.’ In later years John sometimes felt the need to recall this incident to some of us. He was conscious that as a Christian he had been spared to serve the Lord.

After demobilisation John and Margaret settled in St Albans. He entered the government legal service continuing until retirement in 1981. For this work he was awarded the CBE in 1977. At St Albans the family attended Bethel Chapel and there John was baptised by the late Pastor Stanley Delves of Crowborough. In our last conversation he spoke of the value of Stanley Delves’s ministry saying ‘He was a great man’. Shortly after his baptism, the St Albans Church sent John out to preach. By this time he had already been recruited to the committees of a number of Christian societies including the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1946 and the Aged Pilgrims’ Friends Society in 1947. The Strict Baptist Society, with its involvement in trust and charitable work, secured John as committee member in 1951. John’s work for the Society developed in an unforeseen way.

In 1954 he accepted an invitation to edit The Free Grace Record, the Society’s newsletter. He edited every issue from January 1955 until June 1970, when it merged with the oldest Strict Baptist magazine, The Gospel Herald, under the title Grace. John continued as editor until the end of 1983, almost thirty years of service.

In the 1950s the churches amongst which John ministered were struggling to come to terms with the challenges of their times. John valued the experimental Calvinism in which he had grown up, but with his growing sense of history and understanding of the doctrines of grace he was coming to see that there were differences between the doctrine and ethos of the mid twentieth century churches and that of the Calvinistic Baptist pioneers. His own theological development was taking place against a background of the recovery of Reformed theology in Britain. On a preaching visit to Oxford he met Iain Murray some months before the appearance of the first Banner of Truth magazine. When the Banner appeared John gave it a warm welcome, as he did the later book publishing programme.

Already John was challenging the thinking of the readers of his own magazine with pleas for proper support of pastors and higher standards of ministry. He introduced new writers. A highly controversial but very important article entitled ‘Keswick and the Reformed Doctrine of Sanctification’ by James Packer had appeared in the Evangelical Quarterly. The issue of the Evangelical Quarterly was soon out of print, but John obtained permission to reprint it in the Free Grace Record. This became known among the members of the London University Christian Union and the back numbers of the relevant issues of the Free Grace Record soon sold out. Lewis Lupton’s scintillating work on the Geneva Bible first appeared in the Free Grace Record. Herbert Carson and A W Rainsbury were also welcomed to the pages of the magazine, as well as other writers not so well known. John was prepared to take risks and at times there was controversy, but thoughtful letters were welcomed and published.

A lengthy correspondence in the magazine led to a quotation from the 1689 Confession of Faith by the editor. It became apparent that very few were aware of the Confession and requests for its republication were received. It had been reissued by C H Spurgeon in 1855 and John had inherited a copy which had once belonged to Charles Hemington of Devizes. With the support of Leslie Mills of Haslemere and Tom Haddow, John undertook its republication as a private venture in 1959. John himself did the editing and wrote the foreword, stating that he and his colleagues were ‘convinced that it has a message for this generation and that its republication was long overdue’. His words were truer than perhaps he perceived. It was to have an international significance. It is still in print and has been translated into many other languages. In England it helped to draw Calvinistic Baptists into the wider and deeper recovery of Calvinism that was taking place at that time.

Whereas The Free Grace Record was a trail blazer for historic confessional Christianity, Grace was more of a house magazine for the churches that had established it and were represented on its board. John Doggett would however never allow it to become inward looking. Other influences were abroad and by 1983 John was convinced that it was time to relinquish the editorship. By this time Margaret and he had moved back to Essex. Prior to that he had been deeply involved in church life in Reigate and then at Caterham, both in Surrey. At Reigate a new chapel was built and Kenneth Dix, one of the younger reformed ministers, was appointed as pastor. Although he never felt called to accept a pastorate John exercised a useful ministry. As an elder at Caterham he shared the pulpit with Frank Ellis, Michael Bentley and Arthur Fay providing expository ministry until a pastor could be appointed. Back in Essex he worshipped at Langley Baptist Chapel for a number of years and again helped to guide the church to the call of a pastor. Ever conscious of the needs of his own community in the last years he worshipped at an Evangelical Anglican church in his own village and conducted Sunday evening meetings in his own home.

The wider cause of Christ was always with him. From 1977 until 1991 he was chairman of the committee responsible for the running of the Aged Pilgrims’ Friends Society, which became Pilgrim Homes. This demanded wise and active leadership at a time of great change in provision of care for the elderly. John and his colleagues had to face these demands and at the same time promote an expansion of the work to meet growing needs. No doubt others will chronicle these events.

Yet another work close to John Doggett’s heart was the Evangelical Library. He joined the committee in 1959 then under the leadership of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Geoffrey Williams; he shared the vision of these men. He was called to chair the committee from the death of Dr Lloyd-Jones in 1981 until 1994, remaining a member to support his successors until 2002. These were not easy years for the Library, but John was able to secure able men to serve on the committee and under the blessing of God the work continued.

John was blessed with good health until late in life. He rejoiced that all his children were believers, something that he ascribed entirely to the grace of God. After over 62 years of marriage his beloved Margaret was suddenly called into the presence of her Saviour in August 2005. John was now conscious of physical weakness and knew that his departure could not be far off. I visited him in his home in March and we were able to review almost fifty years of friendship and John reminisced of the earlier years of his Christian experience. He wanted to be useful in the service of God and quoted the words, ‘And David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God, fell on sleep.’ In just over six weeks John Doggett, who had served his generation, fell asleep and entered the joy of his Lord.

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