Allport, Ralph Edward (1901-1989)

Transcription of Obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

RALPH EDWARD ALLPORT: born at Quarry Bank, West Midlands, on 19thAugust 1901, began preaching ‘on note’ while a first year pupil at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stourbridge, becoming known as “The Boy Preacher”. Accepted for the Primitive Methodist Ministry, he served a pre-collegiate year in Lowestoft and Beccles before entering Hartley College. In 1925 he was appointed to Radstock as “Probationer-Superintendent”. During the next seven years – a time of serious industrial unrest and considerable poverty – he won the hearts of the young by his prowess on the soccer field and secured the life-long respect of congregation and community by his bluff, forthright manner. Sixty years later older people in the Circuit still judge changes in church and society by reference to what Ralph Allport would have allowed or forbidden. In 1932 he moved to Weymouth where he officiated as wartime Naval Chaplain. After good ministries in Worcester and Chippenham he entered his last appointment at Paulton where he superannuated and lived until his death on 23rd January 1989. Throughout his ministry he was sustained in large measure by the deep love he experienced in his partnership with Alice (“Lofty”), a love which was his inspiration through the 54 years of their marriage and which was precious to him through the remaining years of his life. Many remember with gratitude his trenchant proclamation of the Gospel and the shrewd advice he offered when invited to do so. The rich character of “The Bishop” of Paulton is already a folk memory. Having served his Lord in the church for some 74 years, he died at peace on Monday, 23rd January 1989 in the eighty-eighth year of his age and the sixty-eighth year of his ministry.

Family

Ralph was born on 19 August 1901 at Quarry Bank, Staffordshire, to parents Cornelius, a shopman (general dealer) (1911), and Elizabeth.

He married Alice Green (1900-1981) in the spring of 1927 at Wollescote, Stourbridge, Staffordshire. Birth records identify one daughter.

  • Margaret Alice Elizabeth (b1930)

Ralph died on 23 January 1989 at Paulton, Somerset.

Circuits

  • 1921 Lowestoft
  • 1923 Hartley
  • 1925 Radstock
  • 1932 Weymouth
  • 1944 Worcester
  • 1953 Chippenham
  • 1959 Paulton
  • 1964 Paulton (Sup)

References

PM Minutes 1989/42

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Comments about this page

  • Ralph was 2nd cousin 3x removed.

    By Zoe Brewin (23/03/2021)

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