Coventry, Henry Booth
1877 -post 1956; e.m. 1903

A minister of the UMFC/UMC and a member of the Independent Labour Party, born at Birkenhead on 6 August 1877, he was awarded a London BD in 1902. His socialism was influenced by the Rev. R.J. Campbell's 'New Theology'. In 1913 when in the St. Columb UM Circuit, he was one of the leaders of the China Clay workers' strike. In 1914 he left Cornwall for the Sowerby Bridge Circuit, but was invited back in November 1914 and July 1915 in the hope that he could encourage clay workers to enlist. He saw scant success on either occasion and was booed. He resigned from the UMC in 1916, when in the Sowerby Bridge Circuit and joined the United Free Church of Scotland in 1917. Until 1919 he served as minister of Kilmarnock, St. Andrew's. He then moved to South Africa, first to Lovedale College and then from 1925 at the independent Garden's Presbyterian Church, Capetown. Here he drifted into Moral Rearmament and, having gained a BA, in 1935, was awarded a Capetown University Ph.D. He supported the rights of the Bantus.

Sources
  • Colin C. Short, "'A Fiery United Methodist Minister" - Revd. Henry Booth Coventry and the 1913 China Clay Strike" in Journal of the Cornish Methodist Historical Association, 11, part 6, 2014, pp.235-43
  • Mel Johnson, '"The Persuasive Tongue" of the "outspoken" Rev. Henry Booth Coventry', in Wesley Historical Society Proceedings, 60 part 2, May 2015, pp.74-78

Occupations

Entry written by: CCS and DCD
Category: Person
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