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In Memoriam - Rev Arthur Merritt - 1923 - 2015
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Life
Rev Arthur Merritt (Peter's father) was a Methodist Minister. He was born in 1923 in Hanham, Bristol.He grew up in a strong Methodist family and after his education at Kingswood Grammar School worked in the Tramway Office.He studied for the ministry whilst in India during the war and completed his studies at Didsbury. He was ordained in Sheffield in 1951. He married Iris Arscott in 1950 and together they shared life together until she died in 2006.
Ministry
As a probationer he was initially stationed in Highbridge, Somerset and in 1952 took on his first ministry at Easton Methodist Church, Portland. In 1957 the family moved to Harrogate to Grove Road, Methodist Church. Northampton beckoned in 1962, then Leicester in 1968 and his ministry concluded in Weymouth where he retired in 1988.
Life Outside the Church
Arthur was a student of the classics and learned Hebrew as well as Greek. He was an avid reader throughout his life. He served in the RAF as a Ground Technician and inherited a certain engineering aptitude from his father and grandfather. He was an accomplished model maker,loved poetry which often illuminated his sermons and was a relatively good artist.