TRIBUTE FOR REV JAMES SANKEY WRITTEN BY HIS ELDEST SON ANDREW

My Dad was a Lancastrian born in Abbey village in 1909. He was the eldest of 6 (4 surviving childhood) and was born into a strong Methodist tradition. His Great Grandfather Reuben had served in the village church for 70 years, 50 as the Sunday School Superintendent. His Grandfather James was organist at nearby Withnell. His father, Reuben, also served in the church but when my Dad was two they moved away to Leigh, and he was organist there for a time. After schooling my father went to Reading University to study Maths and Physics. He was deeply involved in SCM (the Student Christian Movement) and through this met my mother studying Geography also at Reading University. They both attended a SCM conference in Edinburgh with others and this was certainly a factor in their call to missionary work. On graduation my father taught at a school first in Windsor and then in Preston before being accepted for missionary service in West Africa.

He was stationed to Mfantsipim High School on the Cape Coast in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1936. As he came back on furlough the church in the Cape Coast wanted him to train for the ministry and return as a Minister. He entered theological training in 1938 at Wesley House. During this time my mother was serving as a missionary teacher in Daraprum (1935-40) in South India. On graduation Mission House sent Dad not back to Ghana but to Managudi in South India in 1940. My mother should have joined my father in India and they were to have married there. However war had broken out and it was impossible for her to get a passage to India. Eventually my father got compassionate leave to return to UK and after a fraught and long voyage he arrived back and they were married on 29th October 1943.

The newly weds were stationed in Tywardreath in Cornwall. Their first child, Ruth, was born and at the end of the war they returned to India to Negapatam (1946-51) My Dad was both head teacher and a minister and is still remembered there. During this period first Rachel was born, then Ruth died aged 3, then Helen was born. In 1951 the family returned to UK on furlough I was born in Colchester. My parents had planned to return to India after my birth but for medicals reasons the family were not allowed to travel and so my father was stationed in Falmouth where my brother Stephen was born. There followed 4 or 5 years in each the following circuits, Tenterden, Hendon and Finchley, Glastonbury and Leek. In 1974 he retired from full time work but did two periods of three years service as an Active Supernumary in the Cardiff Circuit and in the Dursley Circuit. They moved to Marple to be near my sister Rachel and had a happy an active retirement until 1999 when Mum’s health deteriorated. They had just over a year in MHA in Chester, a year in a nursing home in West Kirby where mum died and then dad’s final year in Downham Market to be near me and my family.

It was a full and fruitful life, he was committed to preaching, I still remember him practicing his delivery of messages in his study, he was committed to young people, often starting new work and drawing young people from across the circuits together. He was committed to communication starting magazines, typed onto Gestetner duplicating stencils. He was a good pastor. He was not afraid to challenge and ask the awkward questions. He enabled circuits to make bold decisions. He loved God, he loved his family - he was a man of God.