Large, Reggie (Reginald) Beverley (1903-1972)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

REGINALD BEVERLEY LARGE: born in Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1903. He entered the ministry in 1928, being trained at Hartley College. He travelled in the following circuits: Filey, Hornsea, Halifax, Cwm, Docking, Lincoln, Mansfield, Heckmondwike, Gainsborough, Sleaford, Huddersfield, and, as an active supernumerary, Worksop. 

His open and forthright nature admirably fitted him for a ministry spent mostly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. His surname was strangely apt; he was large in physique, in voice and in heart. Laymen and colleagues alike benefited from his warm-heartedness and good counsel. He made a point of regular attendance at the local Fellowship of the Kingdom group bringing warmth and friendliness with him. For many years he was a valued member of the connexional chapel committee, and he did outstanding work as chapel secretary in the West Yorkshire District; to efficiency and sound judgement he added a very human approach, so that his reports to Synod always commanded attention. 

In the whole of his ministry he was faithful and concientious, an able administrator and an excellent pastor. On 7th July, 1972, the day after he and his wife had celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary, he collapsed and died while waiting for his wife in the car. He was in the sixty-ninth year of his age and in the forty-fifth year of his ministry.

Family

Reggie was born on 9 December 1903 at Swaffham, Norfolk, to mother Ruth Irene Large. He was baptised on 12 February 1904 at Swaffham.

The 1911 census return records him with his grandparents Abraham, a coal dealer, and Mary Ann Elliott.

He married Grace Hilda Prouton (1898-1985) in the summer of 1932 at Swaffham, Norfolk. Birth records identify one child.

• Audrey  G (b1933)      

Reggie died on 7 July 1972 at Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1928 Filey
• 1929 Hornsea
• 1932 Halifax I
• 1935 Cwm &c
• 1936 Hunstanton &c
• 1940 Lincoln P.P.
• 1944 Lincoln, Aldersgate
• 1947 Mansfield Cen
• 1951 Heck’wike Batley
• 1955 Gainsborough
• 1960 Sleaford
• 1965 Huddersfield NE
• 1970 Worksop (Sup)

References

Methodist Minutes 1973/146

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers