Evans, Harold Hartley (1900-1967)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

HAROLD HARTLEY EVANS, B.A.: born at Longton, Stoke-on-Trent in 1900. He was nurtured in the Primitive Methodist Church and after a non-collegiate year in Micheldever he entered Hartley Victoria College where he read for the Manchester B.A. under Dr. A. S. Peake. He travelled in the following circuits: Quinton (Birmingham), Kennington Park, East London Mission, Swindon, St Neots, Stockton, Chester (George Street), Earlestown (Liverpool), Grimsby (Flottergate), Barnoldswick and Earby, Hyde and Denton, retiring to the Cross Hills, Silsden and Cowling Circuit, in 1965. 

From the age of seventeen he suffered from asthma and bore this condition throughout his ministry with courage and cheerfulness. His greatest joys in life came from his preaching and pastoral work. Many recall the exuberance with which he expounded God’s word, and as a pastor he gave himself completely to the needs of his people. He felt very deeply for others and his sensitive spirit quickly reached out in love to those in trouble. By word and deed, through his gracious prayers, his kindly sense of humour and his own experience of ill-health Hartley Evans was a great encourager. He died at his home on 14 July 1967, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and the forty-fourth of his ministry.

Family

Harold was born on 20 November 1900 at Longton, Staffordshire, to parents Albert Ebenezer, a grocer’s shopkeeper (1901), and Mary Alice.

He married May Derbyshire (b1900) in the summer of 1927 at Longton, Staffordshire. 

Harold died on 14 July 1967 in the Lichfield Registration District, Staffordshire.

Circuits

• 1920 Mitcheldever
• 1921 Hartley
• 1924 Quinton
• 1925 Kennington Park
• 1927 E London
• 1930 Swindon
• 1935 St Neots
• 1939 Stockton Par Row
• 1944 Chester George St
• 1950 Earlstown
• 1953 Grimsby Flott
• 1958 Barnoldswick
• 1963 Hyde &c
• 1965 Cross Hill (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1968/173

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers