Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
CYRIL AYDEN FISK, B.A., B.D.: born in Mundesley-on-Sea on 4th June 1909, he was educated at Great Yarmouth Grammar School and spent his early working life as a railway clerk. He offered for the Primitive Methodist ministry, entering Hartley College, Manchester in 1929, where he took the university course leading to the B.A. and B.D. degrees. Following a year on the President’s list, he served in the Watton and Rockland Circuit and the Ipswich Circuit until being commissioned as a Royal Air Force Chaplain in 1939. This marked the beginning of twenty-five years distinguished ministry in the Royal Air Force. After service at various home stations, there were three years spent in Iraq and the Middle East before returning to the United Kingdom in 1944. He served in succession as Assistant Principal Chaplain to the Royal Air Force in the Far East, Transport Command, Coastal Command and the Royal Air Force in Germany. During his term of service in Germany it was largely his personal influence and deep commitment that made possible the building of the new Garrison Church of St. Andrew’s, Rheindalen. On returning from Germany, he became Director of Studies at the new combined Royal Air Force Chaplains’ School at Amport House. Andover. Here, his gifts of mind and spirit contributed greatly to the content of courses and the fellowship of the school. Returning to circuit work in 1964, he had served only two years in the Kent Mission when illness caused his early superannuation and retirement to Stanton Fitzwarren in the Swindon Circuit.
Improved health allowed him to serve six years on the Highworth Rural District Council, his sterling service winning respect of both colleagues and electors. When illness recurred he moved to live in Swindon where, for nine years, he bore the increasing disability of Parkinson’s Disease with fortitude and courage.
Cyril Fisk had a markedly individual personality which would not fit easily into any preconceived expectations of the role of minister and chaplain. A man of gifted mind and great discernment, his character was one of gentle strength with a dry sense of humour. Throughout his ministry he had a profound care for people expressed in his personal counselling. All these gifts found full expression in preaching, teaching and pastoral care of Royal Air Force personnel in many parts of the world. He died on 14th December 1981 in the seventy-third year of his age and the forty-eighth year of his ministry.
Family
Cyril was born on 4 June 1909 at Mundesley-on-Sea, Norfolk, to parents Harry James Fisk, a railway carman (1911), and Hettie Elizabeth..
He married Irene Havill Dyer (1910-1989) in the spring of 1940 at Hinde Street Methodist Chapel, Manchester Square, London.
Cyril died on 14 December 1981 at Swindon, Wiltshire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1934 President’s List
- 1935 Watton &c
- 1937 Ipswich
- 1940 Chaplain, H.M. Forces
- 1964 Kent Mission
- 1966 Swindon (Sup)
References
Methodist Minutes 1982/62
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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