Arthur Messham"

Library, The Precinct, Buckley

29 October 2008

In June 2008, Mr Messham, aged 88, received an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of a lifetime of community work. He went with his daughter, Jennifer Morris.

He is still very active at the time of writing - November 2008.

He began his work in his teens collecting weekly subscriptions for Pentrobin Methodist Church. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps in WWII, entering France on the second day of the D-Day landings. During a football match to entertain the troups returning from the Front, he badly injured his arm and spent the next nine months in hospital, an injury from which he never fully recovered.

His community work over the years has included: Buckley Toc H, first caretaker at Ysgol Belmont, the committee of the Jubilee, hymn singing at homes for the elderly and at Deeside Community Hospital. He is also an enthusiastic supporter of this archive.

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October 2009. by Mr Messham

My parents, Mary Jane Parry and James (Jim) Messham, were Methodists and arranged to get married in Sandycroft Methodist Church, it being the only Methodist church in the district which conducted marriage services. He walked from Burntwood to Sandycroft; she walked from her house in Ewloe and their two witnesses walked from Shotton. After the ceremony, they all walked to Burntwood where Mrs Astbury, Arthur Powell's grandmother, was looking out for them coming along from Tinkersdale through Drury, up the Bank Lane into Burntwood. When she saw them, she put the kettle on for a cup of tea to be ready for them when they arrived. They set up home in Twenty Row.

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William Arthur Messham died on Thursday 10th February 2011, aged 91. He had been an enthusiastic contributor to this archive and a frequent attendee at the library sessions.

Author: Anon

Arthur Messham"

Library, The Precinct, Buckley

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