Graham, John (1885-1976)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

JOHN GRAHAM: born in Nenthead, Alston, Cumberland, on 22nd February 1885. After training at Hartley College he entered the Primitive Methodist ministry in 1912 and travelled in the following circuits. Swaffham, Manea, North Cave, Shildon, Alford, Pudsey and Stanningley, Sowerby Bridge (Sowerby New Road), Long Eaton, and Ilkeston. He retired to Long Eaton in 1952. 

John Graham was possessed of a wonderful memory which helped greatly in all his pastoral work and enabled him to sustain his wide reading and diligent study almost to the end of his long life. No minister ever loved his people more than he did and in return he was held in high esteem and deep affection by them all. His greatest personal qualities, apart from his devotion to his Lord and his loyalty to the Church, were his courage in adversity, his unquenchable humour and his infectious laughter. For all of these, as also for his intimate personal care — of every individual who came to him for help, he will long be gratefully remembered as a faithful pastor and friend. 

He died on 21st November 1976 in the ninety-second year of his age and the sixty-fifth year of his ministry.

Family

John was born on 22 February 1885 at Nenthead, Alston, to parents Robert Graham, a lead miner and Jane Ann Armstrong.

He married Muriel Elizabeth Fisher (1888-1960) in the summer of 1916 in the Mitford Registration District, Norfolk. Birth records identify one child.

• Edna Muriel (1919-1973) – married Francis Alfred Heard in 1945

John died on 21 November 1976 at Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire.

Circuits

• Hartley 
• 1912 Swaffham
• 1916 Manea
• 1920 North Cave
• 1924 Sheldon
• 1927 Alford
• 1933 Pudsey & Stanningley
• 1937 Sowerby Bridge
• 1941 Long Eaton
• 1947 Ilkeston S St
• 1952 Long Eaton (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1977/68

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers