George Cripps was born on May 2, 1839 in Badbury and baptised on May 26 at Chiseldon Parish church. He was the son of James and Sarah Cripps and when aged just 15 he dedicated himself to a life of Christian service. Within months of his conversion he was preaching on the local circuit and embarked upon a long career as a travelling preacher. He began his ministry in Witney in 1861 travelling the country and serving in various circuits including those at Andover, Thetford and Ipswich before returning to Swindon in 1897.
In 1866 he married Ursula Ellen Bayman and the couple had six children, two of whom had sadly died before 1911. Their son Raymond George Cripps married Beatrice Maud Raggett, a member of another prominent local Primitive Methodist family, and went on to become Mayor of Swindon in 1938-39.
George retired to Swindon where he worshipped at the Prospect Place Primitive Methodist Chapel. In 1901 he and Ursula were living at 134 Goddard Avenue. George died at his home on August 25, 1920 and was buried in grave plot D300 which he shares with Ursula who died in 1918.
A lengthy obituary written by Joseph Burton was published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine in 1920 – extracts can be read below:
After a period of further preparation, involving much thought and prayer, he commenced his life’s work as a minister of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in 1861. The Witney Circuit pledged him, and he laboured with considerable success and acceptance on the Sturminster Newton, Faringdon, Andover, Newbury, Basingstoke, Thetford, King’s Lynn, Wangford, Ipswich, Tunbridge Wells and Guildford Circuits.
There were many preaching places on most of these circuits, covering a wide area, and sometimes necessitating a walk of fifteen or sixteen miles each way. Besides the ordinary week-night work, our brother frequently preached three and four times on the Sabbath. He built five chapels and reduced debts on others. It seemed to be his lot to have to grapple with such cases, but with indomitable perseverance and tact, he generally succeeded. At Ipswich, where I first formed his acquaintance, he waited upon a gentleman with the intention of getting financial help, but was unable to see him. He called again—twenty times—before he was granted an interview. The gentleman said: ‘‘I believe you have been before.” Our brother replied that he had called twenty times, and should call again unless he got what he desired. The gentleman bade him sit down, and retired to another room. Presently he brought a cheque for £20—a pound per visit—as a reward for his pertinacity, and, told him whenever he needed help, he could call again.
The same zeal was in evidence for winning souls. Well do I remember as a probationer, the Saturday evening open-air services, with sometimes opposition, sometimes police interference; but if we were moved from one place it was to begin again elsewhere: the singing and exhortations went on, and, we had reason to believe, were made a blessing to souls.
He got the Free Church ministers to join him in a mission in connection with our Rope Walk Church, and as they proceeded down the Rope Walk, headed by a brass band, it was the signal for a tremendous opposition that required the whole of the town’s police, except two, to quell. But not before much damage was done. They smashed the windows of the chapel, brick-ends falling on to the platform, and those who had ventured inside the chapel had to be got out by the back door and through the caretaker’s house. Happily no one was seriously hurt. The windows were boarded up, and the mission proceeded for some weeks, leading ministers and friends of other Churches taking part. The riot was due to a misapprehension that the Salvation Army were beginning their mission in the town, but it turned out for great good, many souls professing conversion.
It was while on the Tunbridge Wells Circuit, under the strain of heavy chapel liabilities, and special services—including mid-day services to men during their dinner hour—that his health broke down. His condition was so serious that his medical adviser ordered a sea voyage to New Zealand on a sailing vessel. In a crisis of this kind, one sometimes discovers that: some of God’s servants have been watching the struggle. It was so in his case. One friend secured his passage, others sent useful presents for his comfort on his voyage, and almost weekly, during an absence of eleven months, never failed to minister to his wife and family. On his return it was found there was very little improvement in his health. The Conference of 1887 stationed him at Guildford, from whence he superannuated in 1892, having travelled thirty-one years. He settled down in Swindon. Though broken in health and a great sufferer, he served nine years on the Swindon Board of Guardians, and preached in nearly all the, Free Churches in the town. His wife, never strong in health, but a great helpmate on his circuits, ideal in the home, hospitable and very kind, predeceased him in 1918. Most of the time after her death he was obliged to remain indoors, and latterly was confined to his room suffering from a complication of diseases—uncomplaining, bright, cheerful and hopeful in spirit, and heartily responsive to prayer and spiritual conversation.
Image published courtesy of My Primitive Methodists
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