Watson, John Jeffrey (1887-1960)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

JoHN JEFFREY WATSON: born 1887 at Glasgow. He began his training at Hartley College in 1913, and in 1915 he enlisted and served in the Field Ambulance. After his war service he was stationed at Guildford, Portsmouth, Romsey, Jersey, Tunstall, Stockton, Southampton, Sowerby Bridge, Oldham, and Ashton-under-Lyne, where he retired in 1955, taking up residence among the people to whom he had ministered for the last six years of his active ministry and continuing to preach in the circuit. 

He brought to his ministry great gifts of mind and heart. Throughout his life he was a diligent student and read widely, with the result that all his pulpit work gave evidence of a well-stored mind. He had a choice spirit, reinforced constantly by prayer. Whether in a devotional meeting or a study circle he was able to carry others to the heart of reality, and many owe their entrance into Christian experience to his influence. He was a man of true humility and the soul of kindness, and these qualities gave to his pastoral work an effectiveness which many people have reason to remember with gratitude. As an administrator he was sound in his judgements, and a loyal and beloved colleague. He was virile and active in mind and body to within a few months of his death. 

He passed to his reward on 9 February 1960, in the seventy-third year of his age and the forty-fourth  of his ministry.

Family

John was born 16 June 1887 at Glasgow, Lanarkshire.

He married Marion Pybus (1885-1971) in the summer of 1920 at Higher Openshaw, Lancashire.

• Mary (b1922)

John died on 9 February 1960 at Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1916 H.M. Forces
• 1920 Guildford
• 1921 Portsmouth
• 1923 Romsey
• 1926 Jersey
• 1930 Tunstall
• 1933 Stoke on Trent
• 1934 Stockton Par
• 1939 Southampton
• 1944 Sowerby Br Tuel
• 1949 Oldham, Un St
• 1949 Ashton u Lyne, Stam
• 1955 Ashton u Lyne (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1960/193

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers