James, Percy William (1874-1946)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

PERCY WILLIAM JAMES: born at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in 1874. After training at Hartley College, he entered the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1901. His circuits were nearly all in Lancashire and Yorkshire; and in all he rendered good service and won the esteem of the people. 

He was a man of kindly disposition with a pleasing wit and an alert mind. He loved to preach, and his sermons were interesting and original, revealing broad sympathies, clear spiritual insight, and joy in proclaiming the Gospel of redeeming love. His passion for righteousness in all human relationships made him a keen advocate of temperance and social reform. He was also keenly interested in District affairs and in the work of the Free Church Council, serving many times as Secretary or President in his area. 

Sickness compelled his retirement from the active work in 1939, and he never fully recovered his health. His end came peacefully on 18th May 1946, in the forty-fifth year of his ministry.

Family

Percy was born on 14 September 1874 at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, to parents William, a manservant (1881) and later an assistant in a chemical laboratory (1891), and Sarah Jane. Percy was baptised on 6 January 1874 at Cirencester.

He married Gertrude Ellen Pickup (1878-1961) in the spring of 1906 at Prestwich, Lancashire. Birth records identify one child.

• Philip W (1912-1912)

Percy died on 18 May 1946 in the Lancaster Registration district, Lancashire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1901 Bury
• 1905 Leominster
• 1908 Driffield
• 1911 Dewsbury
• 1915 Leeds I
• 1920 Huddersfield
• 1926 St Helens
• 1931 Preston I
• 1933 Preston Fylde
• 1936 Morecambe
• 1939 Morecambe (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1946/146

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers