Chessum, Albert James (1877-1952)

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1931
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1931

Early years

Albert was born in 1877 at Bicester, Oxfordshire, to parents Samuel and Sarah. Samuel, a tailor, was a local preacher in the Wesleyan community. The family moved to Dunstable when Albert was a boy. There he had his first contact with Primitive Methodism. Sunday School secretarial duties were assigned to him and he became a candidate for the preaching plan. While a pupil teacher in the day school, Albert was brought into touch with Rev Joseph Odell, who urged him forward into the work of evangelism that found its chief centre in the slums of Birmingham.

Ministry

Whilst at Warrington during World War 1, Albert worked in connexion with Lord Derby’s Military Hospital.

After superannuating in 1948, Albert served for two years as an active supernumerary at Doncaster, Yorkshire.

His obituary records that there was a compelling note to Albert’s preaching, as it was the dominant purpose of his ministry. He trained his mind with a careful selectiveness and kept abreast of world affairs. There was no wonder that his people felt for him an affection of rare quality. They knew that he knew, believed in them, and loved them, and that out of his rich experience he gave them of his best.

Family

Albert married Margaret Bird (1879-1934) in the summer of 1906 at Darlington, Co Durham.  Census and birth records identified two children.

  • Gladys Eleanor (1909-1987) – married Henry W Eagles in 1937
  • Kenneth Stanley (1914-1946)

Albert died on 20 June 1952 at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.

Circuits

  • Hartley
  • 1902 Darlington
  • 1906 Watford
  • 1907 Faringdon
  • 1909 Houghton le Spring
  • 1913 Warrington
  • 1917 Hull V
  • 1919 Pickering
  • 1922 Market Rasen
  • 1925 Newark
  • 1928 Ludlow
  • 1931 Bradford IV
  • 1935 Bolton Moor Lane
  • 1938 Mountain Ash
  • 1940 Aberdare
  • 1946 Pontefract Micklegate
  • 1948 Doncaster (Sup)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1931/622

Methodist Minutes 1952/155

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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