CLARKE, Fred 1889 - 1962

Obituary from the Minutes of the Methodist Conference 1962, page 219

Born in Grimsby in 1889. He was educated locally, and after a short period of teaching entered the Wesleyan Methodist Ministry.

He spent a year as a pre-collegiate in the Callington Circuit, and then went to Didsbury College.

His probation was spent in the Market Harborough and Pembroke Circuits. After that he travelled in the Kirkby Stephen, Tadcaster. Gainsborough, Lincoln, Newport, Bristol, Swindon, Cardiff, and Cheltenham Circuits.

He retired in 1952, but continued to preach regularly in Cheltenham and in neighbouring circuits until he moved to Bristol in 1960.

In Cheltenham and Bristol he was also in demand as a preacher in Congregational and Presbyterian churches.

He was a man who did not wear his heart on his sleeve, but he was moved by strong feelings which were given full rein in the pulpit.

Preaching was undoubtedly his chief gift. He was a penetrating lover of books, and his wide reading lent distinction to the powerful spiritual insight of his preaching and of his conduct of the whole of public worship.

Out of the pulpit he was quick to see the humorous side of things.

His interests included gardening and architecture.

He was never so happy as when spending a day in Oxford or in London visiting bookshops, churches, and lectures.

He died on the 22 June 1962, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and the fiftieth of his ministry.

©Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 1962

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