Sherratt, Joseph B.A. (1894-1972)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

JOSEPH SHERRATT, B.A.: born at Milton, North Staffs in 1895. Brought up in a fervent Primitive Methodist family, he was converted in his youth, and began to preach in the Potteries area. Accepted as a candidate for the ministry in 1920, he spent a pre-collegiate year in the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire circuit before entering Hartley College, where the foundations of scholarly habits were laid. While in the Ebbw Vale circuit, he began a course of studies which enabled him to take the B.A. degree at Cardiff. His circuits included: Brough, Crewe, Ebbw Vale, Leyton, Southend, Bishop’s Castle, Biddulph, Aberystwyth, Weymouth and Tenby. 

A modest and unassuming man, he gave all he had to the ministry to which he was called. He excelled in pastoral care, giving special attention to people on the fringe of the Church, and guiding them to full commitment. His shrewd business sense enabled him to carry to success many schemes of chapel-building and reconstruction. He had contact with a wide range of men who appreciated his friendliness and genial humour. His preaching was simple and direct, winning response from people who quickly learned to love and trust him.

In 1965 he retired to Bournemouth where he found opportunities for worship and witness. A long and exhausting illness, in which he was lovingly tended by his wife, led to his death on 26th August 1972 in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the fifty-first of his ministry.

Family

Joseph was born on 11 December 1894 at Milton, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, to parents John Sherratt, a coal miner, and Sarah Ann Massey.

Before entering the ministry Joseph worked as an aluminium store-keeper (1911)

He married Mabel Trembath (1905-1989) in the summer of 1931 in the Bedwellty Registration District, Monmouthshire.

Joseph died on 26 August 1972 at Bournemouth, Dorset.

Circuits

• 1920 Herts & Beds Mission
• 1921 Hartley
• 1923 Brough
• 1926 Crewe II
• 1928 Ebbw Vale
• 1931 Leyton
• 1936 supernum
• 1937 Southend (Ac)
• 1940 Bishops Castle &c
• 1945 Biddulph
• 1952 Aberystwyth
• 1955 Weymouth
• 1958 Tenby
• 1968 Bournemouth (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1973/154

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers