Humphries, Albert Lewis M.A. (1865-1950)

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1927

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1909

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1927

Early years

Albert was born in 1865 at Bristol, Gloucestershire, to parents Henry and Rosetta. Henry was a cabinet maker.

Albert’s family moved to Liverpool, where he spent most of his education. He moved from an elementary school, by means of a scholarship, to the Liverpool Collegiate School. There he won the silver medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1884, Albert entered St John’s College, Cambridge, and took in due course the B.A. and M.A. degrees in classics. While his university course was drawing to a close, the Liverpool II circuit recommended him as a candidate for the ministry.

Albert had been given a note to preach when he was fifteen years old.

Ministry

After successful circuit ministries in Derby, Birmingham, Matlock and Chesterfield, Albert was appointed as second tutor at Hartley College in 1902. There he taught Greek and Systematic Theology.

For fourteen years Albert served as secretary of the Local Preachers’ Training Movement, and later served as a member of the Oral Examining Committee for ministerial candidates.

Albert was President of Conference in 1926.

At Union in 1932, Albert became Chairman of the Manchester Second District. His ability in administration, coupled with his intimate knowledge of the Manchester area, was invaluable in those formative days.

Dr A.S. Peake wrote of him, ‘As a preacher he is gifted with a sure exegetical insight, felicity of language, and freshness of treatment.’

Though he became supernumerary in 1935, he never really retired. He continued to serve his chapel and circuit, the Hartley Victoria College, the Manchester and Salford Mission, and the Free Church Council with devotion.

Tragic sorrows came to him, but his faith stood all tests, and he went on with his work. He held austere views on the Ministry, but students came to discover in him warm sympathies and a brimming sense of humour.

Literature

Albert authored the following.

The Holy Spirit in Faith and Experience, 1911 – Hartley Lecture

Family

Albert married Lavinia Antliff (1856-1907) in the summer of 1892 in the Shardlow Registration District, Derbyshire. Lavinia was a daughter of Samuel Antliff. Census returns identify three children.

• Dione Muriel  (1894-1960) – married Charles Dudley Francis Burney in 1941
• Cyril Antliff (1896-1924) – a PM Minister
• Norman Samuel Antliff (1897-1982) – a local preacher (1927) and textile chemist (1950)

Albert married May Bowen (1872-1936) in the spring of 1910 at Wilmslow, Cheshire. Birth records identify one child.

• Maurice (1913-1916)

Albert died on 28 March 1950 at Hale, Cheshire.

Circuits

• 1887 Derby I
• 1891 Birmingham I
• 1892 Matlock
• 1898 Chesterfield
• 1902 Tutor at Hartley
• 1935 Supernum

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1909/963 (Lavinia); 1927/2;

Methodist Minutes 1950/145

R Newman Wycherley, The Pageantry of Methodist Union, 1932, p341

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers