Littlehampton mourns the death of kind-hearted preacher David Iliffe

Before his last three years, spent at Nightingale Nursing Home in Beach Road, where he died of an infection, David worked tirelessly to promote children as a priority in church and society.

That included speaking in a wide variety of locations and settings – from Littlehampton school assemblies to children’s gatherings in South African townships and post-Communist Eastern Europe.

Many people here may well remember, as children, taking part in the summer camps David and his team used to run in farmers’ fields at Lyminster and Climping.

He was born in 1928 in Sheffield. His widow Wendy credits his Yorkshire background for his “quick-witted humour, a natural gift for storytelling and plain speaking determination”.

His first job was sweeping up in a plumber’s yard, but it was listening to a children’s evangelist that propelled him into his main work. He studied at Matlock Bible College. That grounded him in working with children, who he felt could respond to simple Bible stories.

“At that time in the 1950s, children’s work in the Church was delegated to women in back rooms,” said Wendy, “but David wanted to make children important.”

The couple married in 1960, the same year David started his children’s camps around here. They moved to Hampton Fields, Wick, in 1966, becoming active members of Wickbourne Chapel, in Clun Road. Hundreds of children attended Sunday School there.

Word spread about David’s entertaining presentation of the simple story of Jesus. He used games, competitions and quizzes – decades before such activities became commonplace in classrooms and church halls.

He gave lectures and led children’s work in more than 50 countries, highlights including flying in a tiny plane across Kenya, listening to Moscow’s Red Army choir singing hymns, and leading the children’s work for American evangelist Billy Graham when the preacher conducted his massive meetings in the UK.

In the late 1970s, the couple moved to Angmering, and later to High Salvington. More recently, they worshipped at Parkside Evangelical Church in Littlehampton.

His legacy also includes Dalesdown, a children’s centre he helped to set up in the Sussex countryside, and Children Worldwide, a network of independent children’s workers.

David leaves two children, Jonathan and Judith, and five grandchildren. There will be a thanksgiving celebration at Dalesdown on March 26.