Storr, Ernest Buckenham (1872-1964)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ERNEST BUCKENHAM STORR: born at Cleethorpes in 1873. He was a son of the manse and familiar with the privations and toils of the early Primitive Methodist ministry. At the age of 26, however, he resigned from the teaching profession and after two years under Dr. Peake at Hartley College he travelled in the following circuits: Shildon, Crook (two terms), Stanley, Shotley Bridge, Norwich, Middlesbrough, Wingate, Nuneaton, Clay Cross and Hetton. He became a supernumerary in 1942. 

His outstanding ability soon became evident in his notable ministry in Norwich but it was among the oppressed working-class communities of North West Durham and Tees-side that his early experiences, sympathies and qualities found their highest expression. There he burgeoned into a vigorous pioneer advocate of the then unpopular Christian-Socialist movement. The price he inevitably had to pay occasioned neither complaint nor regrets. 

He was a diligent student and a well equipped scholar. As a debator and advocate on public platforms, in ministerial study circles or in church business assemblies, he was compelling and convincing. He was a free thinker who was always fundamental. In many ways unconventional, he lived by principle rather than by custom, rule or regulation. As a teaching evangelist his pulpit work was of the highest order, as also were his considerable contributions through many years to the journals and periodicals of his own church—and beyond. 

His passing recalls the words of Robert Browning: “I was ever a fighter, so— one fight more, the best and the last! I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, and bade me creep past. No! Let me taste the whole of it… And with God be the rest! “ He died on 14 November 1964 on the eve of his ninety-second birthday and in the sixty-sixth year of his ministry.

Family

Ernest was born on 29 December 1872  at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, to parents Thomas Storr, a PM minister, and Elizabeth Chevins.

He married Mary Edith Heslop (1878-1962) in the summer of 1903 at Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham.

Ernest died on 14 November 1964 at Willerby, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1898 Sheldon
• 1903 Tow Law
• 1905 Stanley
• 1908 Blackhill
• 1914 Norwich
• 1918 Crook
• 1924 Middlesbrough
• 1930 Wingate
• 1931 Nuneaton
• 1933 Clay Cross
• 1938 Hetton
• 1942 Thirsk (Sup)

References

Methodist Minutes 1965/184

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers