Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
FREDERICK LEONARD CULL: born in Stafford in 1881 the youngest son of a large gifted family. When schooldays were over he worked for a time in the family shoe business and later was trained as an engineer. The Lord, however, had other plans for him, and he was led to offer for the ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church. After training at Hartley College he began his ministry in the Oldham circuit in 1906, subsequently serving in Hull, Prees Green, Knowlwood, Scarborough, Nelson, Norwich, Nottingham, Wishaw and Leigh. He retired in 1949 and went to live in Bournemouth, returning to his son’s home at Leigh after the death of his wife in 1961.
Wide reading, careful preparation, a fine clear voice and a commanding presence made him a most effective preacher, and earned him the interest and affection of his congregations. In addition he was a diligent pastor who knew his people and their needs and cared for them in all their concerns. All his life he was a great reader of the classics, of poetry and biography. The craftsman in him found expression in the hobbies of woodwork and gardening. In these, as indeed in all that pertained to his ministry, only the best he was capable of would satisfy him. Almost to the end of his life he enjoyed robust health and preached with joy and acceptance to within a few months of his death. The last two years of his life were clouded by the death of his wife and the last few months by sickness, but he bore these things with fortitude and grace. His faith never wavered. He died on 2 April 1963, in his eighty-second year, and in the fifty-seventh year of his ministry.
Family
Frederick was born in 1881 at Stafford, Staffordshire, to parents Henry Cull, a shoemaker, and Mary Porter.
Before entering the ministry Frederick worked as an engineer’s fitter (1901)
He married Gertrude Spibey (1885-1961) in the summer of 1910 at Stafford. Birth records identify four children.
- Audrey L M (abt1912-1916)
- Frederick Ewart (1913-2007) – a medical practitioner (1963)
- Kenneth A (1915-1916)
- Mary Josephine (1921-1999) – married Charles N Morrison in 1954
Frederick died on 2 April 1963 at Leigh, Lancashire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1906 Oldham I
- 1907 Hull VI
- 1910 Prees Green
- 1912 Oldham IV
- 1916 Knowlwood
- 1922 Scarborough I
- 1926 Nelson
- 1930 Norwich III
- 1934 Nottingham Mayfield Grove
- 1935 Nottingham S
- 1938 Wishaw
- 1945 Leigh
- 1949 Bournemouth (S)
References
Methodist Minutes 1963/203
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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