Russell, George Roy (1883-1956)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

GEORGE ROY RUSSELL: born at Wishaw, Scotland, in 1883. He joined the Methodist Church in that town when a youth. The Rev. Walter Stott led him to Christ and prepared him for Hartley College, Manchester. He was one of the first Primitive Methodist students to receive a three years’ collegiate course. 

He began his ministry at Barrow-in-Furness in 1909. The friendships formed in those early years continued throughout his life. He never forgot his friends and his friends never forgot him. When war broke out in 1914 he moved from Coventry to Edinburgh, where he was appointed Chaplain to the Forces. During his term of service at Greenock, he was elected a member of the Town Council and of the Education Committee. 

In the famous border town of Berwick-on-Tweed he enjoyed an extended ministry of seven years, identifying himself with all sides of the public life. With boundless energy he served in County Durham, including Spennymoor, Sunderland, Houghton-le-Spring, and Durham. 

He took a keen interest in the welfare of the unemployed and of the miners. He was a man’s man, a man of prayer, and a man of God. Constant in study and deeply interested in ideas, he never forsook his first love for people and his longing that they might know Christ. He distrusted anything that forgot human beings, and his original and stimulating sermons proclaimed the Gospel of love in all its personal, social, and international implications. Above all, he was a valiant fighter for social righteousness, fearless in the expression of his convictions, and faithful to the heavenly vision. 

He went to Fareham in 1953, and he was in constant demand as a preacher, also serving as President of the Free Church Federal Council. He was called to the Homeland on 27th October 1956, in the seventy-third year of his age and the forty-seventh of his ministry.

Family

George was born in 1883 at Wishaw, Lanarkshire, to parents Robert, a colliery engine keeper (1901), and Mary.

Before entering the ministry George was a wagon wheel maker (1901)

He married Jeanie Warnock (b1883) of Wishaw. I have identified 3 of 4 children in online birth records.

• Margaret G (b1914)
• Mary R (b1916)
• George Roy (1923-1988)

George died on 27 October 1956 at Gosport, Hampshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1909 Barrow in Furness
• 1911 Clitheroe
• 1913 Coventry
• 1915 Edinburgh
• 1916 Greenock
• 1920 Nottingham VI
• 1924 Berwick
• 1931 Glasgow
• 1933 Spennymoor
• 1938 Sunderland SE
• 1943 Houghton le Spring
• 1848 Durham
• 1950 Stockport (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1957/193

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers