South, Ronald Edward (1909-1974)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

RONALD EDWARD SOUTH: born in Jersey on 3rd July 1909, After training at Hartley College, Manchester, he began his ministry in 1932, serving in the following circuits: Southampton (St. Denys), Jersey (Wesley), Neath and Port Talbot, Leicester (Clarendon Park and South), Burton-on-Trent (Trinity), and Nottingham (East). 

He was a most able preacher, and this was evidently his first love. His command of language and deep devotional life enabled him to communicate the Gospel to old and young alike. He endeared himself to people by his sincerity and concern for them. He exercised great gifts of leadership and administration, especially in the circuits where he was the Superintendent. He was a father-in-God to his younger brethren. 

As a young man he returned to Jersey in 1936 and spent the next eleven years there, living through the German occupation of the Channel Isles. He had many a tale to tell of those difficult times. 

Nobody ever served with him without becoming aware of his wonderful, warm sense of humour, which he never lost. A bachelor, his mother had lived with him since they left Jersey in 1947 and her illness and death during the last two years of his life caused him great strain, and he had poor health himself. This was the only time in his ministry when he was unable to perform his duties consistently, He became a supernumerary on 31st August 1974. He died suddenly on 9th September 1974 in the sixty-sixth year of his age and the forty-third year of his ministry.

Family

Ronald was born on 3 July 1909 at Jersey, Channel Islands, to parents George Hubert South, a commercial traveller (1911), and Alice Julia Bricknell.

Ronald died on 9 September 1974 at Feltham, Middlesex.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1932 Southampton
• 1936 Jersey
• 1947 Neath &c
• 1950 Leicester Clarence St
• 1952 Leicester S
• 1959 Burton on Trent Trinity
• 1966 Nottingham E
• 1974 Nottingham (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1975/189

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers