Claude was an irascible, disreputable and much-loved resident at Wintringham's Port Melbourne hostel and, later at our high care centre in Avondale Heights, Ron Conn.

Please click here to read his Eulogy - this was written and delivered by Bryan Lipmann at the time of Claude's death. It will give you a good sense of who he was and why his legend lives on.

In many ways Claude and the Vic Market have been litmus tests for Wintringham. Before Wintringham started, the Market was full of old characters like Claude. Men in grey great coats, with a brown paper bag, hung around the Market and passed the day away. Lying behind that image was a social outrage.

All these men were homeless and they passed the day waiting for the night shelters to open at 5 pm. That recurring image of the 1980’s has been a motivation for our work here at Wintringham. The fact that we now only rarely see guys like Claude at the Vic Market is an indication of just how many we have been able to house.