Clifford Pond grew up in Welwyn Garden City, his father was an itinerant preacher and Clifford came to faith at quite an early age and had a strong impression that one day he too would be a minister of the gospel.
He left school at 14 and worked as a messenger boy for the GPO. At the start of the Second World War he joined St John Ambulance Brigade and then transferred to the RAF Medical Service.
During his time overseas he became aware of the work of the Strict Baptist Mission (SBM) in South India and this connection led him after the war to study at the Strict Baptist Institute in London. On a preaching appointment in London he met Muriel, his wife to be, whose sister became engaged to his close friend at the Institute, John Appleby. Clifford and Muriel were married in 1948 and soon took up their first pastorate in Cransford, Suffolk, where their two daughters, Beryl and Eunice, were born.
