Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
RAYMOND ARCHER CROZIER: born at Seaham Harbour in the County of Durham in 1907. He came of a devout Christian home where the virtues of work, thrift, truthfulness, and self-discipline were formative. His early education was received at the Upper Standard School and, after his offer for the Ministry, he was trained at Hartley Victoria College. The circuits in which he served were Dartmouth, Brixham, Chesterfield (Holywell Cross), Gateshead (East), Sunderland (West), Sunderland (North), Sheffield (North East), Jarrow, Newcastle upon Tyne (Central and Sandyford), and Runcorn.
In his youth he was splendidly endowed physically and might have been tempted to follow football as a career. He also had a fine mind and was a student, not merely of books, but of people and social movements, particularly in his beloved north-eastern part of the country. He had the honour of being the first Methodist mayoral chaplain in the ancient Borough of Dartmouth. But, whether it was in the pulpit where his preaching was biblical, well-informed, and spiritual, or in the homes of his people where he is still remembered with affection and esteem as a loyal friend and courageous minister, he had a genuine love of people and could be at home on any level of society. He gathered the energies of his folk for the erection of churches at times, but it was with the lives of people that he was mainly concerned. They responded in wholehearted esteem and trust.
His later years were spent with the handicap of a disabling complaint, but he bore the weakness and physical suffering with an exemplary courage and patience. He died on 24 February 1969, in the sixty-third year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his ministry.
Family
Raymond was born in 1907 at Seaham Harbour, Co. Durham, to parents John, a colliery deputy (1911), and Alice Mary.
He joined the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers in 1923 as he had trained as a carpenter & joiner.
He married Doris Evelyn Brown (1980-1988) in the summer of 1935 at Gateshead, Co. Durham.
Raymond died on 24 February 1969 at Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, Caernarvonshire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1931 Dartmouth
- 1935 Chesterfield &c
- 1936 Gateshead E
- 1941 Sunderland W
- 1945 Sunderland N
- 1948 Sheffield NE
- 1952 Jarrow
- 1956 Newcastle Cent
- 1959 Runcorn
- 1962 Colwyn Bay &c (S)
References
Methodist Minutes 1969/202
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
Comments about this page
Susie,
Thank you for your family update. Please accept our condolences on the recent loss of your father.
Regarding your grandfather, the obituaries recorded in the Minutes of Conference do give only very sketchy details of a minister’s life. It is always interesting to hear additional, and sometimes alternative, views and family stories about our ministers.
I thought you might like to know that his son, and my father, died 28th March.
John William Howard Crozier, known as Howard, was a devout Methodist his whole life, and, before developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism, was the organist of his local Church for around 50 years.
However, the story Dad told me of Grandpa, who I never got to meet, seems much elided in your description.
As the result of an accident, which involved a pole through his chest, Grandpa developed Emphysema, but was not allowed to medically retire from the ministry.
That said, I would like to know Grandpa’s ministry war record. I vaguely remember something about him becoming a chaplain, but don’t know specifics.
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