Cullum, John Arthur (1903-1993)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

JOHN ARTHUR CULLUM: born in Ferryhill, County Durham on 15th August 1902. He was the son of a miner. He attended Ferryhill Infant and Junior Schools and won a scholarship to Alderman Wraith Grammar School, Spennymoor. After leaving school in 1918, he worked in the mining industry in Durham and at Mainforth Colliery. He became a local preacher in the Primitive Methodist Church in 1923, going on, in 1925, to be trained for the ordained ministry at Hartley Primitive Methodist College, Manchester, being ordained in 1928. 

He served in the following circuits: Tranent; Rochdale; West Auckland; Jarrow; Gateshead (West); York (Wesley); Darlington (North); Bolton (Park Street); and Hexham, serving as superintendent in the York, Bolton and Hexham circuits and in hospital chaplaincies in Darlington and Bolton. During his short ministry in Scotland he met Janet. They married in Edinburgh in 1932 and she shared his ministry with him. On retirement they moved to Whitley Bay where they attended St John’s. Following his wife’s death he moved into Harwood Court (Methodist Home) Cramlington. Here he continued to exercise a valued preaching ministry in the Blyth Valley (now South East Northumberland) circuit, preaching his last sermon at Doxford Place, Cramlington in 1992. His last years were to have their own particular pain, however, when his only child Bruce died. 

John was primarily a preacher and pastor. He exercised his superintendencies with a care and concern for his colleagues but was not afraid to be firm if circumstances demanded it. His interests included poetry; a hymn he wrote was sung at his funeral. He loved sport, continuing to enjoy watching football and cricket on the television. He enjoyed singing but anyone who met John would remember him for his personal warmth, his humour and his fund of stories. He died on 4th June 1993 at Harwood Court, Cramlington in the ninety-first year of his age and the sixty-fifth year of his ministry

Family

John was born on 15 August 1902 at Ferryhill, Co. Durham, to parents Saul, a coal miner, and Mary Elizabeth.

He married Janet (1904-1978) in 1932 in Edinburgh.

He died on 4 June 1993 at Cramlington, Northumberland.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1928 Tranent
• 1930 Rochdale
• 1932 W Auckland
• 1936 Jarrow
• 1942 Gateshead W
• 1947 York Wesley
• 1952 Darlington N
• 1957 Bolton Park St
• 1963 Hexham
• 1970 Edinburgh (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1994/29

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers