McCutcheon, Samuel M.M. (1896-1973)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

SAMUEL McCUTCHEON, M.M.: born at New Seaham, County Durham, in 1896. He had among his formative influences a Christian home and the Primitive Methodist Chapel, both used of God to bring him to personal faith in Christ. After service with the Field Artillery in the First World War, during which he was awarded the Military Medal, he offered as a candidate for the Primitive Methodist Ministry at the encouragement of Rev. William Younger, then minister of Central Primitive Methodist Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A pre-collegiate year at Bedford was followed by training at Hartley College where, under the influence of teachers who included Arthur S. Peake, he developed disciplined habits of study and devotion to expository preaching which were to be life-long.

Through his ministry he delighted to share these with groups of local preachers and others, in equipping them to fulfil their calling. His years as a probationer were spent in the South-East London Mission in social and evangelistic work amongst the down-and-out, developing his characteristic concern for a ministry amongst men. In 1927 he was ordained and married Mary Turnbull, who supported him in his ministry in the following circuits: Shildon, Hinckley (Albut Road), Gateshead (East), Bolton (Wesley), Ashby-de-la-Zouch (Burton Road), and Stourbridge and Brierley Hill. He retired to Stourbridge in 1963, continuing to serve the circuit, preaching regularly until the Sunday before his sudden death.

He was gifted with a quick mind and powers of persuasive speech which, used in the service of his Lord, made him a fine preacher, a decisive leader and a firm chairman, These gifts benefited not only the circuits but also the districts in various offices, notably when Secretary to the Synod of the Derby District. Agility of mind was matched by nimbleness of movement displayed in prowess as goalkeeper in student days, as tennis player when at his prime and subsequently, on the golf course. He was a genuine product of County Durham. Upon every remembrance of the ways in which Christ used him, we praise God. 

He died on 21st November, 1973 in the seventy-eighth year of his age and the fifty-first of his ministry.

Family

Samuel was born on 12 March 1896 at New Seaham, Co. Durham, to parents James, a coal miner, and Mary Jane.

At the time of the 1911 census, Samuel was a cool mine pony driver underground.

He married Mary Ann Ellison Turnbull (1901-1980) in the summer of 1927 in the Easington Registration District, Co. Durham. Records identify two children.

• Donald (1929-2003)
• Margaret (b1931) – a nurse (1955); emigrated to Canada

Samuel died on 21 November 1973 at Stourbridge, Worcestershire.

Circuits

• 1921 Bedford
• 1922 Hartley
• 1924 SE London Mission
• 1927 Sheldon
• 1932 Hinckley
• 1939 Gateshead E
• 1944 Bolton Wesley
• 1948 Ashby de la Zouch
• 1955 Stourbridge &c
• 1963 Stourbridge (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1974/146

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers