Williams-Boote, Alfred (1902-1977)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ALFRED WILLIAMS-BOOTE (known throughout his ministry as David): born in Wrexham on 9th September 1902, of a Methodist family. He entered Hartley College in 1924, and served in the following circuits: Leighton Buzzard, Lymm and Altrincham, Cambridge, Doncaster (Highfield Road), Berwick-on-Tweed, North Derbyshire, The Peak, Sheffield (North), Whaley Bridge, Belper, Dursley and Stonehouse, Worksop, and Barnsley (East). 

A period of ill health during his early ministry gave him a deep interest in the pastoral care of the sick, particularly those with emotional and nervous disorders. He was a founder member of the Pastoral Practice Fellowship, a group of young Sheffield ministers, and became its president. In 1949 he was appointed a member of the connexional Spiritual Healing Committee. His whole ministry displayed deep pastoral concern, and his preaching is remembered wherever he served. He was always interested in drama in the life of the Church, and also wrote poems and hymns, some of which were published. His graciousness of spirit made each appointment a source of happy memories for himself and Vera his wife, whom he met and married during his Cambridge ministry. She shared his ministry to the full and on her he relied to the end. Without children of his own, he delighted in children and exercised a great ministry among them. 

During six war years in Bakewell as Honorary Chaplain to the Forces he gave himself unstintingly to work among soldiers stationed there, making his home an open house. IIl health struck again while at Worksop, forcing him to vacate the Superintendency. After two years in the Barnsley Circuit, he retired to enjoy peace and rest in the beautiful Bakewell countryside. Health permitting he delighted to preach in the village chapels of the Peak Circuit until, in 1976, very reluctantly, he had to accept that he could no longer do so. To the end his mind was on the preaching he longed to do. 

He died on 9th June 1977 in the seventy-fifth year of his age and the fifty-first year of his ministry.

Family

Alfred was born on 9 September 1902 at Wrexham, Denbighshire, to parents James Thomas Boote, a butcher’s manager (1911), and Hannah Williams.

He married Vera Elsie Hayden (b1909) in the summer of 1934 in the Cambridge Registration District, Cambridgeshire.

Alfred died on 9 June 1977 at Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1926 Leighton Buzzard
• 1930 Lymm
• 1932 Cambridge
• 1934 Doncaster High
• 1936 Berwick
• 1938 N Derbyshire
• 1944 The Peak
• 1950 Whaley Bridge
• 1955 Belper
• 1960 Dursley &c
• 1963 Worksop
• 1965 Barnsley E
• 1967 Bakewell (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1978/99

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers