Who Was John Clements?

On 12th April 1976 John Clements was tragically killed while attempting to rescue children trapped in a hotel fire in the skiing resort of Sappada in northern Italy.

John left Hitchin G.S. in July 1971 to study Physical Education and English at Loughborough College of Education where he was extremely successful in every aspect of his course. He left Loughborough in July 1974 and went to teach at Prior Park School with a personal report that placed him amongst the very best produced by the College. In September 1975 he took up the post of Physical Education teacher at Sherrardswood School, Welwyn. It was during his second term at this school that he lost his life.

John has left many memories for us to cherish and many qualities to emulate. His honesty, integrity, courage, good humour and enthusiasm for life were there in all his actions and words for everyone to see and hear. He was often described as a really genuine person. Many of us have particular memories of John and however varied they may be they all illustrate his wholehearted and selfless approach to life.
The high standards he held for himself were an example to all who were associated with him and he upheld them to the very last. His integrity was epitomised in his final actions when he put the safety of the pupils in his care above that of himself.

All that he achieved in his short life and the tragic way it was prematurely ended will never be forgotten.

The following passage is an account of the fire written by a girl (Anita Chaytor) from Henrietta Barnet School, who was also in the hotel.

D.B. Whitaker.

On the morning of 8 April, a group of 39 girls from my School, myself included, set off with three teachers for a skiing holiday in Sappada, which is a little village in the Italian Dolomites.

For weeks, we had looked forward to our holiday and all the preparations that went before it helped to bring us all to fever pitch excitement. The majority of us had never before been on a holiday without our parents and, even though we looked forward to the experience, we were a little afraid of such things as the air journey, injuring ourselves while skiing and generally being away from the care and protection of our parents.
After a very happy ‘plane journey, we arrived at Venice and were transferred into a coach for our journey by road up the mountains to Sappada and the Dolomiti Hotel which was to be our home for the next eight days. There were two School parties occupying the same hotel; ours which was an all girls school and another consisting of boys and girls.

The average age of the girls in our School was 15 years, while that of the other School ranged from 9 to 17 years. Our School was housed on the 1st and 2nd floors and the other School occupied the two floors above us.

There were five girls in my room which was on the 2nd floor of the Hotel. The room was a little crowded but, being friends, it didn’t matter.

The morning after we arrived, and every day after that, we would waken at 7.30 a.m. and, after a quick breakfast, would spend the morning on the snow-covered slopes of the mountains in the most beautiful surroundings.

Some of the chair-lifts which were used to get us to the top of the ski runs were the longest and prettiest I have ever seen.

In the afternoons, we were allowed to wander through the village and were generally on our own with our friends. In the village, there was a very lovely little Church which scenically was beautifully situated. On Palm Sunday morning, I persuaded my room-mates to accompany me to Church. Some of my friends are not very regular Church-goers and I had to coax them into it. That night, we lay in bed talking about what a lovely holiday it had been so far. Our chatting continued till the early hours of the morning when, through sheer fatigue, we fell sound asleep.

It felt as though I had hardly been asleep a few minutes when I was awakened by a noisy commotion. My first reaction was to look at the time as I thought the noise was that of everyone getting ready for the early morning ski lesson. It was 4.30 a.m. and pitch dark. I lay in bed trying to wake up sufficiently to enquire what was going on when I smelt smoke and heard shouts of “fire”, “fire”, together with the sound of windows being smashed open. My room-mates were by this time also awake and we ran into the corridor to find out more of what the noise was all about.

Almost immediately, I realised that the Hotel was on fire. Thick black smoke filled the corridor and was fast pouring into the rooms. One or two of us tried to get down the main stair-case but were turned back by the flames and the fumes. With the main route closed, there was no other way out of the building except through the windows. By this time, teachers, children and Hotel staff were all milling around trying to find an escape route to safety and in the confusion I was separated from my friends.

Very soon, we were all finding it difficult to breathe and our eyes were smarting with the smoke. The teachers who were screaming orders told us to wet our face cloths or handkerchiefs and hold them over our noses while they tried to find an escape route and organise our escape. One of the girls said children were being lowered out of the window in the next room to ours and so we went next door. Mr. John Clements, a teacher from the other School, had made a rope by knotting a number of bed-sheets together and was lowering children down out of the window.

Mr. Clements asked us to get as many children as we could into the room and I and some of my friends went into the other rooms leading off the corridor and told as many children as we saw to go into the room where Mr. Clements was. I then tried to go upstairs, as Mr. Clements had requested me to do, and tell anyone who was left upstairs to come down quickly. I tried to do as he said but it was quite impossible. The smoke was so thick that I could not see where I was going as I was coughing and choking. A couple of my friends also tried, but without success. We returned to the room and told him we could not go upstairs. He told us to collect more sheets and stuff them under the closed room door to try and make it as smoke-proof as possible.

Mr. Clements was in complete command of the situation and was very composed. All the time he kept on lowering children one after another, taking care to see that the youngest and those who were most frightened went first.

By this time, the noise and the hustle and bustle seemed to die down. The few of us who were left in the building could feel that time was running out and, frightened though we were to get out of the window, we also knew that we couldn’t stay any longer. At this stage, I heard another teacher call to Mr. Clements from downstairs to abandon the Hotel and come down quickly, but Mr. Clements refused to do so as he said he was needed more upstairs.

When my turn came to get out of the window, I was very afraid to do so as it was a long way down. Mr. Clements assured me I would be all right and said he would help me. He held my hand and lowered me out of the window. It was not easy to keep my grip and manoeuvre myself down the rope in my night-dress. I eventually lost my grip and luckily fell on one of the mattresses that the teachers had thrown out of the windows. I was picked up by the teachers and children who had assembled outside the Hotel.

I had hardly joined the rest of the School when Mr. Clements followed down the sheet rope and the falmes burst through one side of the building. Mr. Clements, who was tpld that there was still a couple of boys missing, did not hesitate to re-enter the burning building to try and rescue them. It was very obvious that to do so was virtually suicide, but he was not the sort of man to stand by and watch in safety while two of his pupils were in very grave danger of death. That was the last we saw of him.

The story I have just told you is about a very brave teacher who saved my life. Even though I was not one of his pupils for whom he was responsible, he didn’t hesitate to help me and a number of other girls who were not directly under his care. He saw us as children who needed his protection and he gave it without counting the cost. Many of my friends, who talk of their experiences on that terrible night, again and again tell of how the teachers from both Schools helped the children to safety and the concern they showed for their safety.