President of the UMFC in 1902 and of the UM Conference in 1913,he was born on 7 August 1852 ar Codnor, Derbys. He became a local preacher at Ripley c.1867. He died in Bristol on 30 March 1914.
His son Herbert Stanley Redfern MSc (1882-1954?), born at Rochdale on 14 January 1882, was educated at Owens College, Manchester and Yorkshire College, Leeds. He served as a lay missionary in China, mainly at Ningpo, where he was Principal of the English Methodist College from 1903 to 1939.