Smith, Reginald James (1899-1968)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

REGINALD JAMES SMITH: born in 1899, entered the Primitive Methodist ministry in 1923 and, after two pre-collegiate years at Wymondham, was trained at Hartley College. He served in the following Circuits: Harrow, Mansfield, Manchester (Great Western Street), Stockport (Trinity, Manchester, Witherington), Wallasey, Burton, and Wolverhampton (Trinity). 

He was quietly competent, unperturbed, and unhurried—this last was perhaps something he had learned during the course of time for latterly he had suffered from a heart condition to which he had to adjust himself and which might at any time prove fatal. His desk was tidy and he attended to each matter in its turn. He had a keen sense of humour and was utterly devoid of any humbug and pomposity. Even in his brief retirement he gave the impression of youthfulness and vigour, enthusiasm and gaiety. He had a deep affection for his brethren and he had no other ambition than to be a good Methodist minister. This ambition he fulfilled in Circuit after Circuit. 

Young and old found in him a sincere friend, a wise counsellor and a devoted pastor. His preaching revealed always his deep pastoral sense, his own personal commitment to the Lord Jesus, and his belief in the Church. He had been a supernumerary less than a year when what had been a possibility for so long and for which he and his wife had been prepared as any could be, happened — he died suddenly on 7 June 1968, in the seventieth year of his age and the forty-third of his ministry.

Family

Reginald was born on 7 March 1899 at Leicester, Leicestershire, to parents William Charles Smith, a frame work knitter of hosiery (1901), and Rosa Anna Clarke.

He married Marjorie Ethel Hilton (1902-1988) in the summer of 1930 at Leicester, Leicestershire.

Reginald died on 7 June 1968 at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.

Circuits

• 1923 Wymondham
• 1925 Hartley
• 1928 Harrow
• 1933 Mansfield
• 1936 Manchester Gt Wes
• 1941 Stockport Trinity
• 1945 Manchester Withington
• 1949 Wallasey
• 1955 Buxton
• 1962 Wolverhampton Trinity
• 1967 Birmingham (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1968/200

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers