Dimond, Sydney George (1882-1968) M.A., D.D.

Obituary from Minutes of the Methodist Conference

Born in Birkenhead in 1882, trained at Victoria Park College, was the son of the Rev. Richard Dimond. He was a man of rare pastoral gifts, rich scholarship and wide experience. His first circuit appointment was at London Limehouse in 1904, and afterwards he travelled in the north, for seven years in Leeds, seven at Farsley and Yeadon, seven at Keighley, and six at Rochdale (where he was Chairman of the District), before joining the staff at Richmond College for six years in 1935. After a two-year watime ministry in Ilford, the last five years of his ministry were spent in the Ministerial Training Department from 1943-48. The special difficulties of that period presented him with many urgent problems, but these and the increasing threat of ill-health, he face with immense resources of courage. In 1926 the Oxford University Press published his Leeds University M.A. thesis under the title: The Psychology of the Methodist Revival. The London D.D. thesis, Heart and Mind, followed in 1945. He continued writing almost to the end, reviewing books for the London Quarterly and Holborn Review and preparing notes for the International Bible Reading Association with characteristic and meticulous care, using the most recent commentaries and books which he annotated in detail. As loyal colleague, affectionate friend, compassionate consellor, and devoted servant of his Master, he left all who knew him the richer for the experience. Few have served their Church with more grace and distinction. He died on 1 July 1968, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the sixty-fourth of his ministry.

©Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 1969

Family

Sydney was born in Birkenhead in 1882, the second child of Richard and Emily Dimond. His father was a United Methodist Free Churches minister and both brothers also became ministers.

He married Mabel Irene Hudson (1890-1979) during the 2nd quarter of 1916 in Hull. They had two children

• Michael H. (1919- )
• Richard Austen (1921-2004)

Sydney died on 1st July 1968 in Beckenham, Kent.

Circuits

• 1902 Victoria Park College
• 1904 London III
• 1908 Leeds Lady Lane (received into Full Connexion)
• 1909 Leeds South
• 1915  Farsley Pudsey and Yeadon
• 1922  Keighley
• 1929  Rochdale Baillie Street (Chairman of the Bolton and Rochdale District)
• 1935  Richmond College (tutor)
• 1941  London Forest Gate
• 1943 London Westminster
• 1948 London Westminster (supernumerary)
• 1962 Bromley (supernumerary)

References

Oliver A Beckerlegge, United Methodist ministers and their circuits: Being an arrangement in alphabetical order of the stations of ministers of the Methodist New … and the United Methodist Church, 1797-1932

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Minutes of the Methodist Conference 1969 p180-181