SIMPSON, Percy Horton 1875 - 1962

Obituary from the Minutes of the Methodist Conference 1962, page 218

Born at Glossop in 1875, where his father, the Rev. E. Horton Simpson, was then minister. He was educated at Kingswood, and after a period in business he became a lay agent at Wragby. He then offered himself for the Ministry and went to Handsworth College, where he made his mark on the sports field as well as in the classroom.

His love of games lasted to the end of his life and was characteristic of him.

He began his active ministry in 1902 in the Sussex Mission, and for the next forty-one years he travelled in the following circuits : Tottenham, Chester, South Devon Mission, Ayrshire Mission, Settle, Guisborough, Guernsey, Wellington, Ramsey, Evesham, Nuneaton, Watford, Cardiff, Waltham Abbey, Rugby, Aberdare.

He was a good preacher, with a strong, clear voice, but the strength of his ministry was undoubtedly his pastoral work. Wherever he went he was greatly loved by his people. His friendliness was immediately apparent to all, and this was the more telling because it was combined with a natural graciousness and courtesy.

He had a life-long habit of talking with children anywhere and everywhere, with the result that he inevitably became a well-known and much loved figure in the community.

When, through increasing frailty, other forms of service were denied him, his ministry to the children of Kings Langley where he lived in his retirement continued to the end.

His habits of kindliness and courtesy, formed through the years by his love and respect for people, never left him, and they made a great impression on the staff of the hospital where he was a patient during the last six months of his life.

He died at Hemel Hempstead on 17 June 1962, in the eighty seventh year of his age the sixtieth of his ministry.

©Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 1962

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