An Enquiry
In April 2025, I received an email enquiry from Tim Kendall, the grandson of Rev George Kendall OBE. He was researching his grandfather’s time as Superintendent Minister of the Sutton and Kirkby Methodist Circuit from September 1944 to August 1948.
As part of that research, he had come across this website and noted that there was a small section on his grandfather’s visits to Bourne Chapel including time spent with the Searsons. He enquired specifically about a photograph of Whit Walks in Chapter 38 which he thought might feature his grandfather.
Minister in the Sutton and Kirkby Circuit
I think the only specific mention of George Kendall on the website is in a list of local Ministers.
Speaker at Bourne Chapel
Mum’s only mention of him in her diaries was as a speaker at chapel. On most occasions, she simply noted that he was the speaker. This included on 3 February 1946, 24 March 1946, 28 April 1946, 16 May 1946, 4 June 1946, 13 June 1946 and 23 June 1946,
On 2 June 1946, he was the speaker at Newstead Anniversary. I am not sure if this was the chapel or Sunday School anniversary. On Saturday 22 February 1947, mum went to chapel to hear Rev Kendall speak on the topic “Can we live to be 100?” On Thursday 25 September 1947, Rev Kendall spoke to the Bourne youth club about the founders of Primitive Methodism, Hugh Bourne and William Clowes.
Time With the Searsons
When visiting Bourne, Rev Kendall used to spend time with the Searsons. Edith Searson and her husband Ben were very active members of Bourne Chapel. She wrote two memoirs entitled “I Remember” and “I Also Remember“. In the former, she recalled a number of Methodist Ministers she had known including the Rev George Kendall, although she spelled his last name as Kendal.
She wrote “during the war the Rev George Kendal OBE of the London Kent Road Mission came to be the Superintendent at Sutton. This was in the forties. He had been in the blitz and his nerves were very bad. I remember how ill he looked, we would say he looked a wreck. After a stay of four years as Superintendent he recuperated. He would tell of being out when the enemy planes were over, and how he hid out of the way of them, including in a cemetery at the back of a gravestone. When at Bourne for the day he came to our home, bringing his slippers as he used to say “to be comfortable”.
Barrie Smith’s Books
J Barrie Smith was a Methodist local preacher and historian. He died in August 2024 aged 93. I was privileged to be able to attend his thanksgiving service. Two of his books list Ministers in the Sutton and Kirkby circuit. These are “Strangely Warmed in Ashfield” and “Noah’s Ark – A Century Before and After“. Both refer to Rev George Kendall.
Rev Kendall’s Ministry
This information is taken from W Leary’s “Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits”. He was born in Hoyland in 1881 and he died on 22 July 1961. His training took place at Hartley College and he started ministry in 1906. He served in the following circuits – Horncastle (1906), Shieldmuir (1908), Colnbridge (1910), Windsor (1913),S Wales Mission (1921), Caledonian Road (1926), Kilburn (1923), West Ham (1937), Brentford (1942), Sutton and Kirkby (1944), Caledonian Road (1948) and London (1956). He served as a chaplain in the first world war from 1915 and was awarded an OBE.
There is also a detailed entry about him on the My Primitive Methodists website. This includes two photographs and some anecdotes of his ministry during the first world war.
Daring All Things
He wrote an autobiography called “Daring All Things”. Understandably, it focuses mostly on his time in WW1 and only very briefly mentions his time in Kirkby saying “my work amongst the Nottinghamshire coal miners came later on. As a kind of interlude after the London “blitz”, I took my wife and children into the country. The doctor had ordered me to do this to build up their health, and mine also, after the shock and privation we had suffered through the bombing.
I served the mining community of Sutton and Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Newstead, Huthwaite and Tibshelf. The work was similar to that I did in Scotland and South Wales [which he describes in more detail], apart from church building. I lived among the people and, like the Prophet of old, “sat where they sat”. Here too I served the British Legion, ministered to the local troops, married, buried and baptised. I was also the chaplain to the Newstead Sanatorium, and found plenty to do. Again I am glad that I had the privilege of working amongst the coal miners.”.
Photographs?
Tim Kendall wondered if the photograph below, which appears in Chapter 38 might show his grandfather and possibly his Aunt Rosemary. I have checked and this photo is labelled 1947 in my mother’s album. The figure in front of the banner appears to be wearing a Minister’s collar so it could be Rev George Kendall. However, I am not sure why the Superintendent Minister from Sutton would be leading the Bourne banner so it could be Alfred Hall. I am fairly sure that the girl to his right is my mother, Sheila Parkin, as she is marked with an “x”. I am also fairly confident that the second picture below shows the same people although the quality is poor and the Minister, in particular, is very dark.
