Walmsley, George Hacking (1882-1962)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

GEORGE WALMSLEY: born in Blackburn in 1882. Under the influence of the Rev. F.J. Hopkins, he offered for the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1909 and studied for two years in Hartley College. Thereafter he travelled in the following circuits : Stratford, Redditch, Oakengates, Tunstall, Walkden, Ashton-under-Lyne, Woodley, Manchester, and Hurst and Hyde. On retirement in 1948 he and his wife settled in Woodley. 

He was beloved as a pastor and respected for his business acumen. He loved good reading and was thorough in his sermon preparation. That he was always a welcome preacher (even in retirement he rarely had a “ free” Sunday) was due in no small measure to the fact that he preached with the passion and humility of a man conscious of a great privilege. His six years as Free Church Chaplain to the Manchester Royal Infirmary and St. Mary’s Hospital won him the affection of a great many who never heard him preach. 

Although in indifferent health, he continued to take services up to the Sunday before his death at home on 21 July 1962. He was in the eightieth year of his age and the fifty-first of his ministry.

Family

George was born on 15 November 1882 at Blackburn, Lancashire, to parents Bartholomew Hacking Walmsley, a cotton mill manager (1891), and Mary Elizabeth Shorrock. He was baptised on 10 December 1882 at St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn.

Before entering the ministry George worked as a cotton mill clerk (1901).

He married Elizabeth Swaby (1885-1965) in the summer of 1915 in the West Ham Registration District, Essex.

George died on 21 July 1962 at Woodley, Cheshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1911 Stratford
• 1913 Redditch
• 1915 Oakengates
• 1918 Tunstall
• 1922 Walkden
• 1928 Ashton-u-Lyne
• 1933 Woodley
• 1941 Manchester Pend
• 1946 Hurst &c
• 1948 Woodley (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1963/176

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers