CAUNTER, John Govett 1903 - 1962

Obituary from the Minutes of the Methodist Conference 1962, page 203

Born at Saltash in 1903. He was educated at Plymouth Technical College. On being called to the Ministry, he entered Richmond College.

From there he volunteered to become a missionary in the Bombay and Punjaub Districts, where he did chaplaincy work.

After five years he returned to work at Southampton and later at Malton. At both places he worked  unsparingly for the comfort and convenience of the troops.

After a period at North Cove he served as honorary chaplain to the R.A.F. Then he went to Sherburn. Daventry and Bellingham, and finally to Oldham, where his labours ended.

He was a quiet and unassuming man, yet always ready if necessary to risk his popularity for the sake of what he believed to be right. He was intensely interested in young people, anxious that they should enjoy their youth and should find in Christ the fullness of life.

There are many people whose lives are richer because of his guidance and encouragement when they were young.

He was always brotherly and friendly, and his people were quick to admire and esteem him and count him as a friend. He was also a ” man’s man”, and was always very much at home among the brethren. He had a high sense of responsibility, and ill-health did not prevent him from shouldering burdens which he felt had been laid upon him.

He was a man of many parts ; he could preach a good sermon and loved his pastoral work. but he could also do almost anything practical with his hands. He never neglected his reading, and his library revealed his interest, not only in theology and doctrine, but in other  subjects which stimulated his lively mind.

In the last months of his life he showed signs of tiredness and strain, yet he said little about his condition and did all he could for his people up to a few days before his death.

A man of God, devoted and valiant and unafraid, he was faithful to his calling in the Church of Christ.

He died on 21 January 1962, in the fifty-eighth year of his age and the twenty-ninth of his ministry.

©Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 1962

Comments about this page

  • We would love to have some photos of your grandfather. If you feel you have sufficiently more information on him you could add a page with the photos. Alternatively you could email them to us, for us to add to this page, at 

    info@mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk

    and add any further info as a comment.

    By Ann Fox, Editor (04/11/2014)
  • John Govett Caunter was my grandfather. I never met him, but have managed to find out quite a bit about him from my father. I have some photographs taken while my grandfather was in India. Would they be of any interest?

    Felicity

    By Felicity Kay nee Caunter (03/11/2014)

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