Tingle, John Archibald (1885-1968)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

 JOHN ARCHIBALD TINGLE: born at West Bromwich in 1885. He entered the Ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1912, after serving a seven-year apprenticeship as an electrical engineer in Rotherham. After training in Hartley College, he travelled in the following circuits: Rugby, Nottingham II, Grassington, Nelson, Brinkworth, Boston, Leicester II, Grantham, Wrexham, Long Eaton, becoming a supernumerary in 1952. 

Primitive Methodism was writ large in his life. He was a son and grandson of the Manse. His brother and cousin were ministers, and he married a minister’s daughter. He had the interesting experience of working in one of his father’s former circuits, Grantham, and the unusual experience of being followed by his brother at Leicester. He was District candidates’ secretary at Brinkworth, and, at Boston, District Orphanage Secretary and Mayor’s Chaplain.

He shared an active interest in politics in his early days and was a life-long pacifist. A careful student of philosophy and psychology, he had practical experience in psychology in association with Dr Weatherhead. He was very widely read in poetry, and richly loaded his sermons with apt quotations. It is obvious from a carefully kept record of press reports all his ministry that he found a place of deep affection amongst his people. 

This was true during his long and most happy retirement of sixteen years at Montgomery where he continued to preach almost to the end. He revelled in the beauty of Wales and her warmhearted people and he became a part of the life of the whole community. He had a great retirement. Like his brother, he was one of the most serene and gentle of men. He died on Saturday 20 April 1968, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and the fifty-sixth of his ministry.

Family

Archibald was born on 17 March 1885 at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, to parents William Tingle, a PM minister, and Mary Lacey.

He married Nellie Spencer (1885-1963) on 4 July 1916 at Zion Chapel, Hunslet, Yorkshire. Nellie was a daughter of Rev. W. Sunlay Spencer. Both fathers signed the marriage certificate. nellie was a school teacher at the time of the marriage. Birth records identify two children.

• William A (b1918)
• Mary E (b1924)

Archibald died on 20 April 1968 at Welshpool, Montgomeryshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1912 Rugby
• 1913 Nottingham II
• 1914 Grassington
• 1916 Nelson
• 1920 Brinkworth
• 1926 Boston
• 1931 Leicester II
• 1935 Grantham
• 1940 Wrexham Poy
• 1947 Long Eaton
• 1952 Welshpool (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1968/197

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers