Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
WILLIAM CHARLTON: born in Chester-le-Street in 1897. He was trained at Hartley College, and his circuits included Newport, Enfield, Ipswich, Leake, Chorley, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Bedale, South Shields, Hinckley, Hull (North), Hull (West), and Castleford.
At the heart of his ministry was a deep experience and a love of people, and as he read widely and was eager to keep abreast of the times his preaching was lively, sound, and relevant. He had the shepherd’s heart. He identified himself with his people in all their experience of life, sharing their joys and sorrows, and bringing to them the assurances of Divine understanding and solace. He had a great capacity for friendship, loyal and kindly. He delighted in sharing his thinking and experience with his colleagues, his people, and notably with Methodist students at Hull University.
His steadiness in handling the affairs of his churches was evident and consistent. He was a sound administrator, sensitive to the currents that met and contested in the hearts of men engaged in the business of the Church. He moved to the Skipton Circuit in 1963 as an active Supernumerary. Alert in mind and willing to serve to the end, he was sadly hampered by sickness. Inability to express himself as he would have wished became a distressing frustration which he bore with fine patience. In this, as in all periods of his ministry, he was sustained and solaced by the love and devotion of his wife and their two daughters. In Skipton and in all his circuits he will be remembered with warm affection. He died in Keighley General Hospital on 21 June 1966, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and in the forty-third of his ministry.
Family
William was born on 1 February 1897 at Chester le Street, Co. Durham, to parents Joseph, a colliery pumping engiineman (1901) and Mary Ann.
The 1911 census return records William working as an office boy.
He married Florence A Jackson (b1899) in the summer of 1927 at Chester le Street, Co. Durham. They had two daughters.
William died on 21 June 1966 at Keighley, Yorkshire
Circuits
- 1921 Newport & Cowes
- 1922 Hartley
- 1924 Enfield
- 1925 Ipswich & Hadleigh
- 1927 Leake
- 1930 Chorley
- 1933 Middleton in Tees
- 1935 Bedale
- 1939 S Shields
- 1946 Hinckley Albert Road
- 1851 Hull North
- 1956 Hull West
- 1960 Castleford
- 1963 Skipton (Sup)
References
Methodist Minutes 1966/219
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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