Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
FRANK COLLEN: born at Soham Fen in 1882. In 1900, after three years at Hartley College, he entered the Ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church.
As a preacher he was stimulating, enriching, and encouraging; as a pastor he had that sympathetic understanding which enabled him to guide and comfort his flock; in administration he was painstaking and thorough, capable and tactful; as a friend he was true as steel. Courtesy with him was no mere outward refinement, but an innate spirit, a Christian virtue growing out-of his fine reverence for God and man. Circuits prospered under his wise leadership. Young and old alike shared the treasures of his heart and mind.
Unexpectedly he was called to the higher life on October 21, 1942, in the thirty-fourth year of his ministry.
Family
Frank was born on 25 September 1882 at Soham Fen, Cambridgeshire, to parents James, who worked the land, and Hannah.
Before entering the ministry, Frank worked the land.
He married Edith Maude Cross (1885-1970) in the spring of 1915 in the Ely Registration District. Birth Records identify three children.
- Alan Raymond (1917-1995) – a solicitor due for admission (1939)
- Roy Norman Wilson (1919-1982) – a bank clerk (1930); Lieutenant in Army (1942)
- Brenda Edith (abt 1926-2012)
Frank died on 21 October 1942 at Church Gresley, Derbyshire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1909 Coventry II
- 1913 Watford
- 1916 Bradford II
- 1921 Coventry II
- 1928 Hinckley
- 1935 Leeds Mean Rd
- 1938 Church Gresley
References
Methodist Minutes 1943/121
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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