The Rt Revd Wilfred Wood writes:
WHEN you consult Crockford’s Clerical Directory, you will learn that Prebendary John Hawell Asbridge, after leaving Durham University, trained for the Church of England ministry at Bishops’ College, Cheshunt. You will also learn of his curacies and his two incumbencies in London.
What it will not tell you is that this quiet, unassuming, non-judgemental, compassionate priest with the gentle smile had a passion for rescuing those who had been buffeted by life’s blows, sometimes to the point of losing hope, and he achieved quite spectacular rescues of such persons. It will not tell you that he met and married a soul-mate in such work, a sweet-natured schoolteacher from Wembley, Jennifer Gilby, who walked hand in hand with him in everything he did until his death. They reared a family of three daughters and a son whose upbringing reflected their own values.
John and I became friends when, in January 1966, he became Vicar of St Stephen with St Thomas, Shepherd’s Bush, and inherited me as a curate. Our friendship lasted until his death. Each year, until it was no longer possible, we went on Retreat together and, on one occasion, he and Jennifer stayed in our retirement home in Barbados.
In the 1960s and ’70s, black immigration was the dominant political and social topic of the day at both national and local level. Enoch Powell, the National Front, and several anti-immigrant organisations were rampant, with no obvious defender of immigrants in politics, trade unionism, or Church. I struggled to do what I could, helping individuals and trying to organise self-help groups without much success. John and Jennifer threw themselves into the struggle, encouraging and assisting me in every way they could. The Wilson government, faced with the overwhelming problem of homelessness and the inadequacy of local-government housing, hit upon the idea of encouraging voluntary housing associations, and it was here that John found the great focus for his life’s work.
Any nine persons might form a voluntary housing association, provided that they did not benefit financially from it and that it was registered with the registrar of friendly societies. If such a housing association could identify a property with potential to provide more standard accommodation after conversion than it did before, then the Government would help the association with mortgage, professional fees, and building costs; tenants had to earn below a certain income.
Our parish contained a number of run-down three- and four-storeyed Victorian houses, badly neglected by landlords, with tenants mainly from the Caribbean and Africa. Whole families were often crowded into a single room on each floor, some of whom attended our church. The Notting Hill Housing Trust was expanding rapidly and buying up properties in our parish. Whenever it did so, it displaced immigrants who were attending our church. John and I sought a meeting with its director to get it to earmark some of the housing for our parishioners, but he declined to do so, on the grounds that the trust had to give priority to those on its waiting list, while securing properties wherever it could find them.
John decided that we should form our own housing association. He and I, together with the two churchwardens and other people we both recruited, formed a multi-ethnic voluntary committee of nine persons, with my wife, a trained secretary, using the church typewriter and Gestetner to act as secretary. He named it the Shepherd’s Bush Housing Association. John was adamant that tenants would not be only from the churches or Christians, but would be selected on the basis of need, whatever their ethnic group or religion or nationality.
We obtained our first house at 220 Hammersmith Grove and worked on it with our own hands. I remember laying the linoleum myself, and the satisfaction we felt when we moved in our first tenants, a Jamaican family. John set about with evangelistic fervour to win support for the project. This included enlisting his fellow Rotarians, especially those in Estate Management. Realising the advantages of new-build property, he tackled the church authorities for every spare piece of land that could be identified, and the association grew apace.
We also recruited a team of multi-ethnic voluntary rent collectors, which had the unforeseen side-effect of astounding local English people at the admirable way in which immigrants treasured and looked after their homes. Needless to say, the association outgrew the church vestry as an office and had to find its own office space with paid help.
John continued to guide the growing association, now highly professional, until he retired from Shepherd’s Bush and moved to Somerset. Today, the Association possesses more than 5000 dwellings and, so far as I know, continues to adhere to its founding principles. It has provided housing for more than 20,000 persons.
Given John’s personality and temperament, it is not surprising that not as much is known of him as is known of the Revd Chad Varah, who founded the Samaritans, or Canon John Collins, the founder of Christian Action, or the Revd Joe Williamson, who rescued street women in the East End of London; but John’s life and ministry, based as they were on our Lord’s instructions in Matthew 25.31 and following, will live for ever.
Prebendary John Asbridge died on 26 July, aged 96.