WILKS, Arthur Herbert 1876 - 1949

Born at Flixton in 1876, and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was a great-grandson of the Rev. Matthew Wilks, a founder of the Bible Society. He entered Richmond College at the age of twenty-one, and this offering of his youth became the service of his life until he died at seventy-three.

That he was successively Chairman of the Channel Islands and Zetland Districts is a symbol of his readiness to go where he was most needed.

He began his ministry in Portugal and concluded it in a wide country mission in war-time East Anglia.

During his Superintendency at Colchester there occurred, on 31st December 1926, the disastrous fire which gutted Culver Street, and the loss of his church caused a serious illness.

As soon as he was able to leave his sick-bed, he put all his strength into replacing the loss with the present beautiful building, raising several thousand pounds to pay the cost, and the church was reopened without delay.

He was a minister of vigorous and gracious personality, who endeared himself to all who knew him. His was a life of dear, deepening friendships ; he treated children as equals, and they loved him ; he had strong convictions, but no opponent could resist his courtesy and affection. He preached, as he loved, passionately.

His Call ruled his life, his loyalty to the Ministry and his faithfulness to our discipline drew devotion. His colleagues admired his administrative skill. His habitual study of the Word of God and his love of family prayer attested his remembrance of ordination vows. He read often the great English, French, and Latin classics.

The death of his wife in 1939 was his unforgotten sorrow, but years of prayerful living had made him quick to discern God at his side.

He died at Colchester on the 31st October 1949, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and the fiftieth of his ministry.

©Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 1950