Bevan, Thomas William (1893-1976)

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1932

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

Thomas William Bevan: born in Spennymoor, County Durham, on 3rd May 1893. His parents died before he was five, and he was brought up, in a miner’s home, by his married sister. After working as a telegraph-boy and in the local Co-operative Stores, he was accepted for the Primitive Methodist ministry, and was sent to Hartley College, after a pre-collegiate year in the Dalton and Millom Circuit. 

During his active ministry of forty-two years, he travelled in the following circuits: Halifax I, Rotherham, Durham, Bradford II, Bradford (Great Horton), Leicester (Ansley), Sheffield (North), Lincoln (Aldengate), Seaham, and Manchester (Higher Ardwick). 

He was a passionate advocate of the social and political outworkings of the faith as well as a convinced pacifist and a sturdy Free Churchman. On these and other lines, he often spoke in the Methodist Conference, and not seldom aroused considerable disagreement. He was, however, always heard with respect and affection, not least by those who did not share his opinions. In 1962 he became an active supernumerary in the West Wight Circuit, where he continued to be the stimulating influence he had always been. 

Finally, in 1965, he and his wife, who had shared wholeheartedly in all his ministry, retired to Liphook where for a further nine years he continued to preach, rendering especial help during a long period of ministerial illness. He regularly attended the Preachers’ Meeting, and also the local Fellowship of the Kingdom Group, and in both places he continued almost to the end, pleading constantly for a closer attention to the task of Christian apologetics. Scholar, prophet, evangelist and pastor, man of God and beloved friend; that was Tom Bevan all his days. Almost his last words were the singing of God’s praise, before he died, on 12th May 1976 in the eighty-fourth year of his age and the fifty-ninth year of his ministry.

Family

Thomas was born on 3 May 1893 at Spennymoor, Co. Durham, to parents Isaac and Eliza.

The 1911 census describe him as a store assistant.

He married Agnes Stewart Smith (1898-1990) in early 1926 in the Todmorden Registration District, Yorkshire. The 1933 Methodist Who’s Who records that they had two daughters.

Thomas died on 12 May 1976 at Liphook, Hampshire.

Circuits

  • 1917 Dalton & Millom
  • 1919 Hartley
  • 1920 Halifax I
  • 1925 Rotherham
  • 1928 Durham
  • 1932 Bradford II
  • 1933 Gt Horton
  • 1937 Leicester Anstey
  • 1942 Sheffield N
  • 1947 Lincoln Aldersgate
  • 1951 Seaham
  • 1957 Manchester Higher Ardwick
  • 1962 W Wight (Sup)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1932/581

Methodist Minutes 1976/62

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Comments about this page

  • I’m another grand daughter together with 5 other siblings.

    By P Bygrave (29/03/2023)
  • Seventeen grandchildren, I am his grandaughter Dawn Bevan

    By Dawn Bevan (14/08/2021)
  • Make that seventeen grandchildren.

    By Dawn Bevan (14/08/2021)
  • I am Tom Bevan’s grandson. In fact he and Agnes (my grandmother) had 5 children – three daughters and two sons – and a total of sixteen grandchildren.

    By Will Marriage (04/01/2021)

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