Gough, Arthur James (1896-1968)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ARTHUR JAMES GOUGH : born in Birmingham in 1896, educated at Birmingham Central Secondary School, he entered the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1921, after training at Hartley College. He served his period of probation in the Ebbw Vale Circuit and then at Lydney, Stroud, Rhondda, Wisbech, and Oakengates in Shropshire. 

Wherever he went he established himself as beloved pastor of his people. He was then invited back as Superintendent to Stroud and went on to Daventry before turning to South Wales again, where he finished his active ministry as Superintendent of the Risca and Cross Keys Circuit. In attempting a sixth year there his health failed, and he retired in March 1959. 

He lived nine more years in Risca, cared for in a long illness by his devoted wife and two unmarried daughters. Though his brain deteriorated more rapidly than his strong physical frame the sense of fellowship with his Lord remained a vivid reality, and he carried with him memories of former congregations as almost to the end he led them in singing, and preached to those whom he seemed to see gathered round his bed. He died on Wesley Day 24 May 1968, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his ministry.

Family

Arthur was born on 26 August 1896 at Birmingham, Warwickshire, to parents James Gough, a tailor and Hatter, and Emily Thomas.

In 1911 Arthur worked for a surgical instrument manufacturer.

He married Lily Jane Francis (1898-1989) in the summer of 1925 at Birmingham, Warwickshire. Birth records identify two daughters.

• Joan F (b1926)
• Mavis (b1929)

Arthur died on 24 May 1968 at Risca, Monmouthshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1921 Ebbw Vale
• 1925 Sydney
• 1929 Stroud
• 1935 Rhondda
• 1939 Wisbech
• 1942 Oakengates
• 1946 Stroud &c
• 1950 Daventry
• 1953 Risca &c
• 1959 Risca (Sup)

References

Methodist Minutes 1969/177

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers