Preston, Henry (1874-1941)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

HENRY PRESTON: born at Carleton, Yorkshire, in 1874. He entered the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1900, and was trained at Hartley College.

He served his Church with loving devotion in all his duties. He was a true pastor, an acceptable and faithful preacher of the Gospel. Being a man of method in business and possessing gifts for organization, he grappled fearlessly with many difficult problems in his circuits, and by his courage and strong faith he achieved success. In his character there was a combination of strength and gentleness which gave a charm to his personality and won for him many friends. The grace of God dwelling richly in his heart made him a true gentleman, and was the secret of the influence of a gracious personality, by which he will be remembered by all who came under his ministry.

He retired from the active work in 1940, owing to a serious breakdown in health. After a trying illness, cheerfully and bravely endured, he passed peacefully away into the higher service of His Lord on Good Friday morning, April 11, 1941, in his sixty-seventh year and the forty-first of a devoted ministry.

Family

Henry was born on 22 November 1874 at Carleton, nr Skipton, Yorkshire. I have not been able to determine Henry’s parents in online records. His mother’s maiden name appears to have been Chatman.

Henry spent seven days in prison in the summer of 1905 for non payment of the poor rate. This record reveals that he was 5 ft 7 inches tall with brown hair.

He married Lilian Downer Bell (1884-1953) in the summer of 1905 in the Andover Registration District, Hampshire.

Lilian Maggie (1906-1991) – a school teacher (1939)
Florence May (1912-1999) – a post office telegraphist (1939)
James Gordon (1921-1993) – an incorporated accounts clerk (1939); a civil servant (1953)

Henry died on 11 April 1941 at Shrewsbury, Shropshire.