Born at Esh, Co. Durham on 26 August 1911, he was accepted for the ministry at the last UM Conference before Methodist Union in 1932 and trained for the ministry at Hartley Victoria College. Following the death of W.F. Swift he served as Connexional Archivist 1962-76, organizing the Archives Centre at Epworth House, London and cataloguing the collection before it was moved to Manchester. The thesis for his Ph.D. at Leeds was published as The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in Early Methodism (1951), with a sequel covering the years 1792-1960 (WHS Lecture, 1961). In 1975 he gave the Fernley Hartley Lecture, a study of the pastoral office in WM, published as Pastor and People. He was editor of the Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society 1962-1980 and the Society's President 1975-1980. He was an accomplished pianist and organist and despite increasing deafness enjoyed music. He died at Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne on 19 June 2000.

Entry written by: JAV
Category: Person
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