Snell, Arthur (1904-1972)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ARTHUR SNELL: born in Abertillery in 1904. He attended the Primitive Methodist Chapel at Cwm Street and was proud of the fact that he was married and ordained there. He was accepted for the ministry in 1928 and served a pre-collegiate year at Horncastle before training at Hartley College. After a year at Abergavenny as a probationer, he moved to the north-west where he was to spend most of his life. He served at Lymm, Droylesden, Sale and Stretford, Higher Ardwick, Glossop and Ilkeston. 

The mark of his fervour and devotion to the church and his Lord was seen in his response to the need to serve abroad, and he and his family gave six devoted years to work in India. He was a studious and considerate man who carefully thought out what he was going to say and do before committing himself. Preparation was the key to his ministry whether for the pulpit or in planning the strategy for his circuits. The result of this was seen in the Glossop circuit where, as superintendent, he tackled the problem of re-organisation with courage and foresight which led to the opening of the Central Church in Glossop in 1966. The strain of those eleven years affected his health, but he did not spare himself as he worked for the completion of the scheme. 

He retired to Stockport in 1970 where he continued to preach and take an interest in the local church, but he was far from well and was disappointed that he could not be more active. But his faith never wavered, and he would constantly say, ‘God is good’. He died on the 17th December, 1972 in the sixty-eighth year of his age and the forty-fourth year of his ministry.

Family

Arthur was born in 1904 at Abertillery, Monmouthshire, to parents Andrew Dunster Snell and Julia Coles.

He married Rosalie Parfitt (1905-1994) in the spring of 1932 in the Bedwellty Registration District, Monmouthshire. Birth records identify two children.

• Olwen Mary (1935-2007) – married Noel C Fairhurst in 1956
• Marian (b1944)

Arthur died on 17 December 1972 at Stockport, Cheshire.

Circuits

• 1926 Horncastle
• 1828 Hartley
• 1930 Abergavenny
• 1932 Lymm &c
• 1935 Manchester Higher Openshaw
• 1941 Manchester Stretford
• 1946 Mysore, India
• 1948 S India Church
• 1952 Manchester Higher Ardwick
• 1957 Glossop
• 1967 Ilkeston
• 1970 Stockport (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1973/156

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers