Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
DAVID EDWIN BLUCK: born in Royston, Barnsley on 30th November 1905. One of seven children, after leaving school he began work in the local pit and was part of the mining community during the depression of the twenties. Under the influence of the local Primitive Methodist Sunday School superintendent he began to preach and then entered Hartley Victoria College to train for the ministry. In 1929 he was sent to the Birmingham, Balfour Street Circuit, where he met his first wife, Gwynneth; subsequently he served in the following circuits: Hornsea; Middleton in Teesdale; West Monmouth Mission; Liverpool (North); Newcastle upon Tyne (North West); Stockton (Paradise Row); Sunderland (West); Pudsey; Newcastle upon Tyne (Heaton and Wallsend); Long Eaton; and Oldbury.
His wife, Gwynneth, died in 1934 and David raised twins, David and Gwynneth, as the Second War threatened. He went to Liverpool in September 1939 and experienced being bombed out of his manse. At Stockton he was the driving force behind the new church at Hartburn and whilst in Pudsey his vision and hard work led to a new church at Swinnow. In 1960 he married Emma Sheard, a member of the Wesley Deaconess Order serving at Brunswick, Newcastle, and family life began again with the births of Sylvia and Gill. He became a supernumerary minister in 1972, retiring to Uttoxeter in the Dove Valley Circuit where he continued to preach beyond his eightieth year. He is affectionately remembered for his homely style in the pulpit and ability to establish rapport with his congregation. Described as a man of the people he brought to the pulpit his pastor’s heart. There were no false airs about him; with his warm Yorkshire accent and sense of humour he endeared himself to the people. He had found in Jesus unsearchable riches and his only ambition was to share what he himself had found. His breadth of interests was great; he read widely, had a Yorkshireman’s passion for cricket and soccer, loved repairing clocks and tinkering around with electrical gadgets and radio. He died on the 20th October 1993 in the eighty-eighth year of his age and the sixty-fourth year of his ministry.
Family
David was born on 30 November 1905 at Royston, Yorkshire, to parents William Henry, a miner, and Sarah. He was baptised on 13 December 1905 at St John the Baptist, Royston.
He married Muriel Gwynneth E. Dack (1913-1934) in the summer of 1933 at Birmingham, Warwickshire. Birth records identify two children.
- Diana Gwynneth (b1834) – married Hans W.D. Rostrup in 1958
- David Royston (1934-2009)
He married Emma V Sheard in the summer of 1960 in the Span Valley Registration District, Yorkshire.
- Sylvia M. (b1961)
- Gillian M. (b1964)
David died on 20 October 1993 in the East Staffordshire Registration District.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1929 Birmingham I
- 1933 Hornsea Market Place
- 1935 Middleton Tees
- 1936 W Monmouthj M
- 1939 Liverpool N
- 1942 Newcastle NW
- 1945 Stockton Paradise Row
- 1953 Pudsey
- 1957 Newcastle heaton
- 1963 Long Eaton
- 1968 Oldbury
- 1972 Uttoxeter (S)
References
Methodist Minutes 1994/22
Primitive Methodist Magazine
PM Minutes
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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