Jacobs, William George (1896-1953)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

WiLLIAM GEORGE JACOBS: born in 1896 at Whitstable, Kent. After serving as a lay pastor at Ilford and Belvedere (Kent), he was accepted for the Primitive Methodist ministry in 1924 and appointed immediately to Wangford. From there he travelled in the East Dereham, Blaenavon, Berkhamsted, Mansfield, Colchester, North Walsham, and Kent Mission circuits. He became superintendent of the Ipswich (Rope Walk) circuit, and soon afterwards ill-health necessitated his retirement and he went to live at Sheerness. 

As a preacher of the Gospel he possessed great talent, and could illuminate the Scriptures with insight and skill and often with compelling power. Travelling in wide country circuits, he was a faithful pastor to all his people, especially to the sick and elderly. In administration he was efficient and tireless, labouring to set the business affairs of the circuits on a sound basis. His zeal for his vocation and his unstinting service were beyond his physical powers. He faced ill-health with courage, and even then did not spare himself but gave himself to the Lord whom he loved and served so faithfully. 

The end came suddenly in hospital on 8th December 1953, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and the thirtieth of his ministry.

Family

William was born on 16 April 1896 at Whitstable, Kent, to parents Ernest Walter Jacobs, a shipwright (1911), and Sarah Catherine.

The 1911 census return describes William as an apprentice engine fitter at H.M. Dockyard.

He married Theodosia Matilda Bedford (1899-1994) in the summer of 1921 in the Sheppy Registration District, Kent. Birth records identify two children.

• Audrey Eileen (1924-1986) – married Leslie F Broom in 1944
• Brian William (1927-2009)

William died on 8 December 1953 at The General Hospital, Milton Regis, Sittingbourne, Kent. His home address had been in Sheerness, Kent.

Circuits

• 1924 Wangford
• 1925 E Dereham
• 1928 Blaenavon
• 1931 Berkhampsted
• 1936 Mansfield
• 1938 Colchester
• 1943 N Waltham
• 1947 Bishops Stortford
• 1948 Kent Mission
• 1951 Ipswich Rope
• 1952 Sheerness (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1954/125

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers