Brough, Alfred Norman (1903-1981)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ALFRED NORMAN BROUGH: born in Moss Side, Manchester, on 25th August 1903. He attended the Upper Moss Lane Primitive Methodist Chapel, and began training as a quantity surveyor, but after his conversion at the age of sixteen under the ministry of the Rev. Edward Steen, the call to preach led to a call to the ministry and he entered Hartley College on his twenty-first birthday. While at college, he organised Saturday afternoon games for boys in the nearby Alexandra Park, and throughout his ministry retained a keen interest in youth work. 

His first  circuits were: Leeds, Brandon, Leicester (Hinckley Rows), Spennymoor and Ferryhill, and Derby (South). In Derby he met his wife Margaret and, from that time, theirs was, in every sense, a partnership in life and ministry: they cared for their colleagues and their families; they cared for the people committed to their charge. In the Peel, Bebington, Tavistock and Cheltenham Circuits, and in the Colwyn Bay and Llandudno Circuit on retirement, their deeply dedicated work brought blessing to many, and young people especially found wise counsel and encouragement in Christian living. 

During his time in Devon, Norman served as chaplain to Dartmoor Prison, and there his forthright preaching and sturdy character bore much fruit. Upon superannuation, he and Margaret went to live at Deganwy. He rejoiced that his house was within walking distance of the golf club, for he was a great sportsman. In 1971-2 he took charge of the Conway church as an active supernumerary, and afterwards sustained, up to the Sunday before his death, a full and much appreciated preaching ministry, not only in our circuits, but in the pulpits of other denominations throughout North Wales. It was the joy of his life to be a Methodist preacher; indeed he desired that little more than this be said of him. It sufficed him to be obedient to a clear call; to declare boldly, without fear or favour, a Gospel which had searching application to both personal and national life, and to be faithful to his ordination vows all his days. 

He suffered a sudden and unexpected cerebral haemorrhage and died in Llandudno Hospital a week later, on 18th December 1981 in the seventy-ninth year of his age and the fifty-fifth year of his ministry.

Family

Alfred was born on 25 August 1903 at Manchester, Lancashire, to parents Arthur Brough, an insurance clerk (1911), and Eleanor Canwell Kelley.

He married Edith Margaret Austen (1907-1996) in late 1947 at Rosehill Methodist Chapel, Derby, Derbyshire.

Alfred died on 18 December 1981 at Llandudno, Caernarvonshire.

Circuits

  • Hartley
  • 1927 Leeds III
  • 1932 Brandon & Deerness Valley
  • 1936 Leicester High Rd
  • 1937 Spennymoor &c
  • 1942 Derby S
  • 1947 Peel
  • 1951 Bebington
  • 1958 Tavistock
  • 1963 Cheltenham
  • 1968 Colwyn Bay (S)

References

PM Minutes 1982/54

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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