Collinson, Harry Goodair (1892-1969)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

HARRY GOODAIR COLLINSON : born in Leeds in 1892. After training at Hartley College he began his ministry in the Crowle Circuit in 1917. Thereafter he served in the following circuits: South Yorkshire Mission, Sheffield (John Street and Ann’s Road), Grimsby and Cleethorpes, Newcastle under Lyme, Longton and Fenton and Ellesmere Port. 

He retired in 1957 and returned to the Longton and Fenton Circuit. Here he rendered fine service in the pulpits of the circuit and beyond, though the last five years of his ministry were marked by indifferent health. Nevertheless, he maintained his interest in all that was going on, and his willingness to help in any way he could never grew less, even though his bodily weakness set limits to what was possible. He was regular in his attendance at worship, and he was a keen and appreciative listener. He himself was a good preacher, and his pulpit ministry revealed a heart and mind which knew the essentials of the faith. 

He was a good man of affairs who showed his faith by faithfulness. But it is supremely as a pastor that he will be remembered. He shared the joys and sorrows of his people, carried them in his heart, interceded for them in his prayers, and his constant visiting brought comfort, cheer, and hope to countless people. He was a great lover of young people and they, in turn, loved him. He had a great sense of fun and humour and, to the end, he was able to ‘put a cheerful courage on’. He died on 25 March 1969, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the fifty-second of his ministry.

Family

Harry was born on 3 September 1892 at Leeds, Yorkshire.

He married Martha Phillipson (1894-1975) in the summer of 1921 in the Thorne Registration District, Yorkshire. Birth records identify four daughters.

• Joan (b1923)
• Marian (1927-2014) – married Frank Housley in 1949
• Enid (1930-1988) – married Vincent C Haddrell in 1952
• Brenda (b1933)

Harry died on 25 March 1969 at Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1917 Crowle
• 1921 S Yorks Mission
• 1927 Sheffield V
• 1934 Grimsby & Cleethorpes
• 1937 Cleethorpes Trinity
• 1937 Newcastle (Staffs) Ebenezer
• 1945 Stoke & Longton
• 1952 Ellesmere Port
• 1957 Stoke & Longton (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1969/204

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers