123313213 Crispin 1944-
Crispin David Powell Clay was born on 15 November 1944 in Lusaka, N. Rhodesia, the third son and youngest child of Gervas Clay and Betty nee Baden-Powell. He was educated at Peterhouse, Rhodesia and St David's College, Lampeter where he obtained his B.A. in 1967.
A teacher of English at Centaurus High School, Windhoek, S.W.Africa, from 1971 to 1974, Crispin was married on 21 September 1973 in Walvis Bay, S.W. Africa (now Namibia) to (Ortrud Christa) "Orti" Wiese, see below. They have a son:-
Eric (Ernest) born on 10 February 1974
Crispin follows the precedent set by his ancestor Joseph Clay, the first of Burton, as, from ??? to ??/??/20012, he ran a liquor shop, "Grillenberger's Bottle Store" in the small fishing port of Lüderitz Bay, Namibia. This settlement is surrounded on the West side by the Atlantic, and on the East by desert, which stretches for three hundred miles and more, and is securely sealed off by Diamond Concessionaires. The herring fleet is in port for three months of the year, when the town wakes up from its hibernation.
Crispn was perhaps the most "literate" of his siblings. Their father Gervas, and his father Gerard, had both written poetry, and Crispin also occasionally "waxed lyrical".
In 1990, Crispin wrote, directed and produced a Pageant to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the visit to Luderitz of the Portuguese sailor Bartholomew Diaz, who set up an obelisk there, and was the first European to record his visit. This production then played in Johannesburg, Capetown and Lisbon.
Crispin has also been a leading light in the campaigns to put Luderitz "on the map" and keep it there - the tarring of the only access road, 300 miles long from Walvis Bay; the retention of the railway, threatened with closure; etc.
In 2020 Crispin suffered a stroke, that stole the functional ability of his left side and put him into a care home for two years. In August 2022 he flew to Windhoek where he gve a "Presentation" of his poetry through the years, an event entitled "Laugh, Sob, Itch". In August he travelled to Europe, and stayed with his son Eric near Frankfurt-on-Maine, before flying on to London to stay with his eldest brother Robin, and his sister Gill.
(Ortrud Christa) "Orti" née Wiese,
Orti was born on 30 June 1941 in Windhoek, South West Africa (now Namibia), of German extraction, the only child of ??? and ??? nee ??? of ???.
Orti and Crispin were fellow teachers in Windhoek.
In ??? Orti won the competition for the design of the Namibian Flag.
From 1991 to 1998, Orti was keeper of the lighthouse at Dias Point near Luderitz, following the automation of which she became a Port Controller in Luderitz.
