Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
HERBERT MILLS: born 9th January 1904 at Northwich. The son of a postman, he left school at thirteen and a half years of age and served seven years apprenticeship as a shipwright. He entered the ministry in 1929 and after training at Hartley College he served the following circuits with great faithfulness: Worthing and Shoreham, Pontypool (High Street), Southall and Uxbridge Mission, Uxbridge, Hayes and Yiewsley, Cradley Heath (Grainger’s Lane), and Gosport and Fareham.
His early life in industry prepared him to understand the spiritual needs of those who were similarly employed. Whether in the Welsh valleys during the depression or amongst the workers of Cradley Heath, he brought a deep insight which heightened the effectiveness of his work in these and similar areas. He placed great emphasis on the Church’s links with the community and when he left Hayes the Town Council passed a special resolution expressing appreciation of his work.
Throughout his ministry he was lovingly supported by his wife, Olive, to whom he was devoted. After a period of retirement in Worthing they moved to ‘Connell Court’, the Methodist Home for the Aged in Southport where he died on 15th December 1980 in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the forty-ninth year of his ministry.
Family
Herbert was born on 9 January 1904 at Northwich, Cheshire, to parents Herbert, a postman (1911), and Catherine.
He married Olive Holland (1901-1983) in the summer of 1936 in the Northwich Registration District, Cheshire. Census returns identify one child.
- David J W (b1939)
Herbert died on 15 December 1980 at Southport, Lancashire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1932 Worthing &c
- 1937 Pontypool High St
- 1944 Southall &c M
- 1948 Uxbridge &c
- 1953 Cradley Heath G Ln
- 1960 Gosport &c
- 1968 Worthing (Sup)
References
Methodist Minutes 1981/79
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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