Easey, Walter (1876-1949)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

WALTER EASEY: born at Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 1876. He entered the Ministry of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1902, and with the exception of a term in the South Yorks Mission, his whole ministry was spent in the south of England; and in many different types of work he offered Christ to men and proved a father in God to his people. He became a Supernumerary in 1939, but the need for men during the stress of war brought him back into the active work for another seven years. 

Even when he ‘retired’ finally in 1948, he sought to render maximum service, ministering with great acceptance in the Swindon (Bath Road) Circuit, where he was a welcome visitor in all the pulpits and in the homes of the people.

He was always eager to go the second mile. He had a genius for friendship, and his understanding sympathy made him a great encourager. His prayers were a benediction. To the end he maintained the spiritual glow, and by his life as well as by his words he commended the Gospel to all with whom he came in contact. The Home Call was sudden and unexpected, and he faced it with the same ready acceptance which had marked his whole life. His often-expressed wish to die ‘in harness’ was granted. His reward of promotion to higher service came on 1st July 1949, in the seventy-third year of his age, and the forty-seventh year of his ministry.

Family

Walter was born on 11 September 1875 at Soham, Cambridgeshire, to parents Simon, a shoemaker, and Harriet. He was baptised on 24 October 1875 at Ely PM Chapel.

He married Clarice Violet Matilda Major (1881-1965) in late 1907 at Colchester, Essex. Birth records identify one child.

• Ivan Major (1911-1985) – assistant receiving officer and deputy registrar (1939)

Walter died on 1 July 1949 at Swindon, Wiltshire.

Circuits

• 1902 Colchester
• 1906 Sturminster New
• 1907 Redruth
• 1910 Coleford
• 1912 Ramsgate
• 1916 S Yorks Mission
• 1919 Reading
• 1923 Enfield
• 1928 Faringdon (S)
• 1929 Faringdon (Ac)
• 1933 London Kentish Town
• 1939 Supernum
• 1941 Chelmsford (Ac)
• 1945 Frome (Ac)

References

Methodist Minutes 1949/148

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers