Steen, Edward Albert (1878-1956)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

EDWARD ALBERT STEEN: a member of a family known throughout the Wrexham district for its uprightness and strength of character. First a school-teacher, he was later called to the Primitive Methodist ministry, and on entering Hartley College was recognized as a student of no mean order. He entered the ministry in 1904, beginning at Whitehaven in a year of nation-wide revival. His apostolic ministry there stamped his whole career with the indelible characters of an evangelist. Yet he never lost his intellectual keenness. Every sermon he preached was marked with the signs of deep thought and careful preparation. By people whose main interests were social, he was not always understood. But to anyone prepared to listen carefully and to catch the spirit of the man, his ministry was indeed a benediction.

In Manchester, where he had three terms of service, the students held him in high regard. Frequently the congregation in Upper Moss Lane church contained more students than others. Again at Chester, the more thoughtful young people flocked to his services. He must have left his mark upon many in our ministry and in the teaching profession. 

He possessed a sense of humour and was a competent and keen musician. In one or two circuits he organized and conducted choirs which did themselves much credit. Throughout his life he had what amounted to a passion for brass bands and was able as a judge of the large musical ensemble.

He bore the strain of his wife’s illness with amazing fortitude, ministering cheerfully to others when he himself needed comfort. He died 25th November 1956, in the fifty-third year of his ministry and the seventy-seventh of his age.

Family

Edward was born on 1 July 1878 at Rhostyllen, Wrexham, Denbighshire, to parents John Steen, a plate layer (1881), and Ann Mitchell.

He married Lily Davies (1880-1947) in the spring of 1910 in the Wrexham Registration District, Denbighshire. Records identify two children.

• Marjorie Lillian (1912-1993) – a teacher of music (1939)
• Edward Basil (1913-1883) – a rating clerk (1939)

Edward died on 25 November 1956 at Romsey, Hampshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1904 Whitehaven
• 1908 Manchester IV
• 1913 Bury I
• 1916 Chester I
• 1920 Manchester II
• 1923 Winsford
• 1928 Leighton Buzzard
• 1933 Wolverton
• 1936 Romsey
• 1940 Silchester
• 1945 Romsey (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1957/195

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers