Tunley, Walter (1873-1938)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference 

WALTER TUNLEY: born at Everton, Liverpool, into a deeply religious home. He passed through Hartley College and entered the Primitive Methodist Ministry in 1897. He is gratefully remembered for his earnest evangelical preaching and for his kindly pastoral oversight. At Nottingham, and Church Gresley in particular, his leadership is a fragrant memory. The fine central church in Church Gresley is a monument to the forward movement initiated by him. 

Quiet, earnest, studious, and efficient, his warm-hearted ministry won the affection of the people. He was a wise administrator, but above all else scores of people found the Saviour and the Churches were sustained and strengthened by his preaching and kindly Ministry. 

At the 1937 Conference, owing to ill-health he sought superannuation. The succeeding months were spent in Derby with his loved ones, but in much physical weakness and suffering. He passed to his reward on May 16, 1938, in his sixty-fifth year and the fortieth of his ministry.

Family

Walter was born in 1873 at Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, to parents John Tunley, a grocer (1881), and Margaret Baker. His brother, William, was also a PM minister.

He married Florence Taylor Benton (1877-1959) in the spring of 1901 at Nottingham. Nottinghamshire. Census returns identify one child.

• Margaret (Madge) (1906-1985) – married Ernest Edward Oldham, a bank clerk (1939), in 1930

Walter died on 16 May 1938 at Derby, Derbyshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1897 Malton
• 1898 Horncastle
• 1900 Belfast I
• 1901 Nottingham IV
• 1904 Church Gresley
• 1907 Earlstown
• 1910 Sutton & Kirkby
• 1914 Sileby
• 1919 Burslem
• 1921 Derby IV
• 1926 Nottingham II
• 1928 Sheffield Intake
• 1929 Biddulph
• 1930 Nuneaton
• 1931 Glascote
• 1933 Sheffield Intake

References

Methodist Minutes 1938/199

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers