Stowe, Charles Leonard (1875-1948)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

CHARLES LEONARD STOWE: born at West Bergholt, near Colchester, in 1875. Starting to preach whilst still a youth, he was accepted for the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1897, and entered Hartley College. 

An example of the highest type of circuit minister, he gave himself without reserve to the work of God wherever he went, He rendered faithful and devoted service in all his circuits, in Scotland and the north of England. He was a keen student and an expository preacher. Painstaking in all his work, he will be affectionately remembered in his circuits as a diligent pastor and sympathetic friend. He walked humbly with his God, and delighted in the fellowship of his brethren in the Ministry. 

In 1946, he became the first Warden of the Manor House, Barrow-on-Trent. During his residence there he was still eager to preach, and conducted services in and around Derby. After a short illness, he passed to higher service on 17th December 1948, after forty-eight years of conscientious work as a minister of the Methodist Church.

Family

Charles was born on 30 October 1875 at Colchester, Essex, to parents Charles Stowe and Ellis E Lott.

The 1891 census return records Charles as an assistant clerk.

He married Eliza Sheldon (b1876) circa 1905. Census returns identify two children.

• Theodora (1906-1963) – married Richard B Handley, an optician, in 1933    
• Donald (b1907)         

He married Alice Inglis (b1888). Birth records identify three children.

• Winifred A (b1919) – a shorthand typist (1939); married Byron Estey in 1940
• Colin (1921-1999) – an education officer (1959)
• Anthony (1923-1976)

Charles died on 17 December 1948 at Barrow on Trent, Derbyshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1900 Wishaw
• 1904 Warrington
• 1907 Manchester X
• 1911 Greenock
• 1916 Berwick
• 1924 Hartlepool
• 1927 Wigton
• 1933 Alston
• 1935 Silchester
• 1940 Stokesley
• 1943 Middlesbrough (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1949/132

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers