Tinkler, Bertram William (1892-1974)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

BERT WILLIAM TINKLER: born in Grantham on 3rd June 1892. After working for a time in industry he offered for the ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church and spent a pre-collegiate year in Blackpool before entering Hartley College in 1920. After his training he served in the following circuits: Huddersfield, Scholes, Bradford II, Ossett, Pateley Bridge, Cleethorpes (Mill Road), Skegness, Huddersfield (Buxton Road), Huddersfield (South), and Bradford (Westbrook). He retired in 1963 to the Bradford (Great Horton) Circuit and settled at Horton Bank. 

Throughout the whole of his ministry he showed a tremendous zeal for the work of God. He never spared himself, entering deeply into the lives of his people, and the death of his first wife after a lengthy illness gave him a sure touch in his pastoral work. In all his circuits he took the Gospel to people of all ages and occupations. Many organisations came within the sphere of his gracious influence and on several occasions he was Mayor’s chaplain. He was an inspiration to his colleagues, especially younger men, and was a true brother in Christ. 

In retirement, as in the active work, he continued to exercise a loving ministry. At Horton Bank among folk they loved, he and his second wife, Hilda, turned what could have been an embarrassment for their successors into an immeasurable gain. Their home was a place of sympathy and understanding; their help was constant but unobtrusive. The onset of severe and prolonged illness brought distress but this served only to deepen the affection in which he was held. For a time there was no sign of improvement, and then thankfully he came through to enjoy for further years those deep and happy relationships with other people that marked his entire ministry. 

He died on 7th July 1974 in the eighty-third year of his age and the fifty-fourth year of his ministry.

Family

Bert was born on 3 June 1892 at Grantham, Lincolnshire, to parents Tom Tinkler, a railway foreman shunter (1901), and Eliza Rosier.

He married Olive Green, nee Stacey (1888-1938) on 30 June 1926 at the PM Chapel Honley, Wakefield, Yorkshire.

He married Hilda Marston (1911-2005) in early 1940 at Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire. Birth records identify two children.

• Pauline R (b1940) – married David J Hitchborn in 1963
• John S (b1944)

Bert died on 7 July 1974 at Bradford, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• 1919 Blackpool
• 1920 Hartley
• 1922 Huddersfield
• 1924 Scholes
• 1927 Bradford II
• 1932 Ossett
• 1936 Pateley Bridge
• 1941 Cleethorpes M R
• 1946 Skegness
• 1952 Huddersfield Buxton
• 1954 Huddersfield South
• 1958 Bradford West
• 1963 Bradford (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1975/191

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers