Non conformity had a small presence in Swindon until the arrival of a large industrial workforce who came from across the country to work in the Great Western Railway. In fact the large number of nonconformists who wished to bury their loved ones without the rites of the Church of England was a contributing factor to the building of Radnor Street Cemetery.

This is the grave of Wesleyan Minister, Henry Clifton Bassett. Born in St. Stephens, Launceston, Henry was the son of agricultural labourer John Bassett. John must have been ambitious for his son as the 1871 census reveals that 12 year old Henry was a boarder at a school in Launceston.

By 1881 Henry, then aged 22, was a Wesleyan Minister lodging in Paignton with William Anderson, a joiner and carpenter, and his family. In 1884 he was employed at Lerwick with John H. Hooper, working on the Shetland Isles circuit.

He married Mary Ann Read in 1887 and the couple had three children – a daughter Hilda Constance and two sons, Clifton Read and Henry Norman.

Death of the Rev. H.C. Bassett

Swindon Circuit Wesleyan Supt. Minister

We regret to record the death of the Rev. Henry Clifton Bassett Supt. of the Swindon Wesleyan Circuit, which took place at his residence, Eastcott House, Regent circus, Swindon, last Saturday afternoon, at the age of 60 years.

The rev. gentleman was born at St. Stephens, Launceston, Cornwall, and had been in the Wesleyan Ministry for 36 years, holding important appointments in a large number of Circuits, more recently as Superintendent. Among the town in which he laboured were Newton Abbot, Lostwithiel, Northampton, Barton-on-Humber, Accrington, Sheffield, Darleston, Willenhall, Whitby, Selby, and latterly at Swindon.

The term of a minister’s tenure in a Circuit is three years. It speaks much for the popularity of Mr Bassett that after serving his full term in most of the Centres in which he has ministered he has been invited to remain for a longer period, so acceptable has his preaching and his work generally been to the people.

He came to Swindon from Selby in September 1917, as Supt. of the Circuit. His principal reason for coming South was the health of his wife, who had been in indifferent health for some years, Mrs Bassett being unable to withstand the rigours of the northern climate.

Mr Bassett had always enjoyed good health. He was an extremely hard and conscientious worker, a circumstance which in point of fact brought about the illness which ended in his death. He overtaxed his strength in visiting and preaching during the prevailing epidemic of influenza with the result that after preaching on Sunday, December 8^th at the Wesleyan Central Mission, he arrived home from the evening service utterly exhausted. Dr. Lavery was summoned, and Mr Bassett was ordered to bed, from which he was never able to rise. His case was diagnosed at first as influenza. His heart became affected and pneumonia supervened. On Christmas Eve Dr. J. Campbell Maclean was called in in consultation, and his report as to Mr Bassett’s condition was grave.

Death took place on Saturday afternoon, in the presence of his wife and daughter and a trained nurse who had been in attendance.

Deceased leaves a widow, two sons, and a daughter. One of the sons is engineer to the Sunderland Corporation and the other is serving as an apprentice in the Great Western Works at Swindon.

Sympathetic references were made in all the Wesleyan Churches in the Circuit on Sunday to the great loss the Church had sustained in the Connexion by the death of the Rev. Clifton Bassett.

The funeral took place on Wednesday. There was a service at Wesley Chapel at 2.30, conducted by the Rev. H.W. Perkins, assisted by the Ministers of the Circuit and neighbourhood, and an address was delivered by the Chairman of the District, the Rev. Grainer Hargreaves of Oxford.

The Faringdon Advertiser, Saturday, January 25, 1919.

Henry Clifton Bassett was buried on January 22, 1919 in grave plot D1304 where he was joined by his wife Mary Anne in 1923. The cremated remains of their daughter Hilda Constance was buried with them in 1975 and their son Henry Norman in 1986.