Burndred, Norman Goodwin (1894-1965)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

NORMAN GOODWIN BURNDRED, T.D.: born in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1894. After a pre-collegiate year at Oxford, he was trained from 1921-23 at Hartley College. He served in the following Circuits : Oldham, Oakham, Aberavon, Sale, Brinkworth, Witney, Luton, Berkhamsted, Wymondham and Swaffham. Whilst he was at Witney he became chaplain to the Territorial Army; he continued to serve in this capacity until 1959 when he retired from the active Ministry. 

World War II found him acting as full-time Chaplain in the Army, and taking part in the evacuation at Dunkirk. In 1953 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration and Clasp. He returned to Circuit work at Berkhamsted in 1946, but never lost his interest in and concern for the Forces. He retired at Swaffham, Norfolk, at the end of his four-year ministry there in 1959.

He was blessed with a keen, enquiring mind, and through careful observation and reading kept himself well abreast of the times, while his rich pastoral gifts brought much blessing to those to whom he ministered.

In retirement, in spite of a bad heart condition, he continued to exercise a vigorous, gracious ministry, not only in the Church he loved, but also in the district where he lived. Among his activities he included chaplaincies to the R.A.F. at Marham, and at the Swaffham Cottage Hospital which he visited on the afternoon of his death. He was Padre and Pilot of the Swaffham branch of Toc H, as well as chairman of the local branch of the British Legion Service Committee, the Aid to the Refugees Association and the National Savings Group. For three years from 1959 onwards he was a member of the Swaffham Urban District Council. In continuation of his life-long consuming interest in education, he was a Governor and Vice-Chairman of Hamond’s Grammar School, a Governor of the Secondary Modern School, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Primary School, at Swaffham. He died suddenly on 3 May 1965 in the seventy-first year of his age and in the forty-third of his ministry.

Family

Norman was born on 26 June 1894 at Hanley, Staffordshire, to parents William, a blacksmith, and Eliza.

He married Norma Florence Hope (1898-1978) in the summer of 1926 at Northwich, Cheshire.

Norman died on 3 May 1965 at the Baptist Chapel, Station Street, Swaffham, Norfolk.

Circuits

• 1920 Oxford
• 1921 Hartley
• 1923 Oldham IV
• 1925 Melton Mowbray & Oakham
• 1926 Aberavon
• 1929 Manchester V
• 1931 Brinkworth
• 1934 Witney
• 1938 Luton
• 1940 Chaplain H.M. Forces
• 1946 Berkhampsted
• 1951 Wymondham
• 1955 Swaffham
• 1959 Swaffham (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1965/204

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers