John Clement

John Handel Clement, civil servant: born Felindre, Glamorgan 24 November 1920; Principal, Welsh office, Ministry of Housing and Local Government 1960-66; Assistant Secretary, Welsh Office 1966-71, Under-Secretary 1971-81, Director of Industry Department 1976-81; Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales 1966; Chairman, Welsh Planning Board 1971-76; CB 1980; married 1946 Anita Jones (one daughter, and one daughter deceased); died Cardiff 24 May 2007.

John Clement's motivation as a senior civil servant in the Welsh Office was shaped by two experiences: growing up in South Wales as one of a collier's five children during the grim Depression of the 1930s; and his service with the RAF during the Second World War.

He volunteered in 1940, at the age of 20, from a junior job as a clerical officer in the Welsh Board of Health in Cathays Park, Cardiff and was immediately sent for training as a navigator in Pensacola, Florida, where he passed at the very top of his intake. On his return to Britain he was commissioned and posted to 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron based at Waddington in Lincolnshire, the first in the air force to be equipped with Lancaster bombers.

Chosen by Sqn Ldr John Nettleton VC to be his navigator, Clement soon won his confidence. On his test flight, over parts of north Wales in thick cloud, Nettleton wanted to drop below cloud level in order to verify the instrument-based position which Clement had just given him. But Clement, who had been plotting their course every six minutes by reference to speed, wind and compass bearings, advised against it because such a descent would mean flying into the side of Snowdon. Nettleton was adamant until, just then, the clouds parted to reveal the mountain's summit directly below them; he never doubted his navigator's judgement again.

Clement went on 30 bombing missions over Germany. He was so adept that he was lined up as one of the reserves for the famous Dam Busters' raid of 16 May 1943. When, in later life, he was hauled up before the formidable Dame Evelyn Sharp, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing in Whitehall, and told that perhaps he had been under a good deal of pressure at the Welsh Office, he replied that it wasn't the case: "Flying over the Ruhr at 20,000 feet with anti-aircraft shells bursting all around you and the night fighters strafing you - now that was pressure!"

Clement was determined for the rest of his life to use the good fortune of his survival to address the other passion which motivated him, namely the need to create economic conditions in Wales which would go some way to alleviating the social problems which had blighted his own boyhood in Felindre, a coalmining village near Swansea.

Returning to the Civil Service after the war, and with no formal academic qualifications, he made steady progress up the career ladder. Appointed Principal in the Welsh office of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1960 and Assistant Secretary in the new Welsh Office in 1966, he served as Private Secretary to Cledwyn Hughes, the second Secretary of State for Wales, and then from 1971 to 1981 as Under-Secretary for Economic Planning and Director of Industry. From 1955 to 1959 he was Secretary of the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire and Chairman of the Welsh Planning Board from 1971 to 1976.

With a reputation for competence and a dogged determination "to get things done", Clement worked with some of the leading figures in the post-war revival of the Welsh economy, particularly the trade-union leader Huw T. Edwards, Chairman of the Council for Wales. It was Clement who wrote the council's famous third memorandum which recommended the setting up of a Welsh Office under its own Secretary of State, a policy adopted by the Labour Party in its manifesto of 1964.

As a civil servant, Clement's forte was writing policy reports whose main thrust was to indentify Wales as a political entity. In these years he had to tread a very tortuous line between the advocacy of policies he believed to be right for Wales and his departmental brief, which was often much less adventurous. The Welsh Office, established in 1964, had not got off to the most auspicious of starts and took until 1969 to produce its first economic development strategy, Wales: the way ahead. It was no accident that Clement was chosen to lead its implementation.

His work in the Economic Planning Division and subsequently as Under-Secretary in charge of the Industry Division at the Welsh Office during the 1970s was an important part of the long process of devolution which has continued to our own day. His special tactic was always to provide ministers, whether Labour or Conservative, with arguments for timing the closure of coal mines and steelworks to coincide with the growth of new industries. He had seen enough of unemployment in his youth and did not wish to see its baneful effects repeated.

At the time the Government was relocating parts of the Civil Service out of London and Clement worked tirelessly to ensure that Wales had its share of jobs. The Development Board for Rural Wales and the Welsh Development Agency were set up on his watch, as well as the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, the DVLC in Morriston and the Inland Revenue in Llanishen, Cardiff. His expertise was grudgingly recognised by Whitehall mandarins: he was a first-class "operator" and his canniness made for confidence that the Welsh Office was clearly capable of developing its own policies and becoming an effective and credible Department of State.

But Clement paid a price for this success: he was refused promotion at least once on the grounds that he was too "nationalist" and emotional in his approach, though he had never sought preferment in London. In a newspaper interview published in 1999, Rhodri Morgan - now First Minister at the third National Assembly - referred to Clement as one of "the select crew" who were prepared to stand up to the power of Whitehall on behalf of Welsh interests.

Every Secretary of State for Wales under whom he served paid public tribute to Clement. On one occasion he went to meet James Callaghan, the Prime Minister, on the platform of Cardiff station to accompany him to a meeting in the city. Clement was offered a lift in the PM's car but politely declined because he wanted to stretch his legs. Callaghan, anxious for a conversation with someone whose opinion he respected, said he would walk with him and the two proceeded up St Mary's Street followed slowly by an entourage of flabbergasted minders in their chauffeur-driven cars; no one, in their experience, had ever turned down a lift with the PM. For his services to the governance of Wales, Clement was appointed CB in 1980 and was awarded an honorary MA by the University of Wales in 1982.

His means of relaxation were following the fortunes of the Cardiff XV and the Glamorgan XI, reading poetry and trout-fishing - though he never once thought to buy a licence. In retirement he served as a member of the Wales Tourist Board from 1982 to 1988 and of the Midland Bank's Advisory Council in Wales from 1985 to 1994.

A fluent Welsh-speaker, for more than 50 years he was regular in his attendance at the Welsh Congregationalist chapel in Minny Street, Cardiff.

Meic Stephens