Tootell, William (1884-1952)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

WILLIAM TOOTELL: was born at Blackburn in 1885, and was brought up in a godly Methodist home and Sunday School. In 1906 he went to Hartley College, Manchester, and after training there, in 1909 began his probation in the Rhymney Valley circuit. After this he served in Leicester, Newport (Mon.), Hereford, Risca, and Cross Keys. In 1950 he retired from the active work after forty-one years of distinguished and faithful ministry. He remained at Risca, serving the various churches of the locality, preaching every Sunday until a few weeks before his death, which took place on October 19, 1952, at the age of sixty-seven and in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. 

He served our Church in many ways, supporting local Temperance Societies, Christian Endeavour Unions, Free Church Councils, and Sunday School Unions. But his greatest work was done in the circuits where he ministered to his own people. His supreme concern was their spiritual progress. Many young people were brought to Christ through his ministry. He was a thoughtful, definite, and evangelical preacher, as the broadcast service he conducted in the last year of his ministry made plain. He showed marked ability on the administrative side of our work both in his circuits and in District affairs. This was especially the case in the South Wales Primitive Methodist District, where for several years he served first as Sunday School Secretary, and then as District Secretary. 

He was a friendly, genial man, a brother beloved and trusted by all who knew him, capable, reliable, wise, fair, and thorough in all his work and ways. He was a faithful and devoted servant and minister of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Church.

Family

William was born 31 October 1884 at Blackburn, Lancashire, to parents Henry Tootell, a cotton weaver (1901), and Maria Leach.

Before entering the ministry William worked as a cotton weaver (1901).

He married Mary Elizabeth Boore (1886-1960) on 31 December 1913 at Christchurch, Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire. The 1939 Register and birth records identify four children.

  • Robert William (1914-1994) – an elementary school teacher (1939)
  • Stansall Henry (1916-1997)
  • Joan Mary (1919-2016) – an elementary school teacher (1939); married Allan L Pardoe in 1957
  • Muriel E (1922-1950) – married George A Morton in 1948

William died on 19 October 1952 in the Swansea Registration District, Glamorgan.

Circuits

  • Hartley
  • 1909 Rhymney Valley
  • 1913 Hereford
  • 1915 Leicester I
  • 1918 Newport
  • 1932 Hereford
  • 1945 Risca &c
  • 1950 Risca (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1953/129

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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