From [Albert Richard] Balman at Lostwithiel, Cornwall, to [Frederick Leach Buxton], enclosing a gift towards the expenses of the re-union of ex-Bible Christians to be held on 3rd November.
He has very happy memories of the old times, for he spent much of his ministry in the south-west and he is therefore familiar with many Bible Christian shrines such as Shebbear, Holsworthy and further west in `Billy Bray country'.
He has an immense personal debt to Thomas Braund, whose friendship he so richly enjoyed when serving in Holsworthy.
Notes .
- Albert Richard Balman (1879-1956) was born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset. At the age of sixteen he became an accredited local Bible Christian preacher and in 1898 was appointed a lay pastor in the Scilly Isles. He entered the ordained ministry the following year. Balman exercised an active circuit ministry of forty-three years. Source: Beckerlegge and M R 13 Sept. 1956, p.18
- William or Billy Bray (1794-1868) was born near Truro in Cornwall. He worked as a miner and led a drunken and dissolute existence until his conversion at the age of twenty-eight, after which he became a Bible Christian local preacher. His enthusiastic and unconventional style of preaching made him one of the best known figures in the Connexion. He built six chapels either with his own hands or by appeals. Source: Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974)
- Thomas Braund (1842-1914) was born in Devon and was trained for the Bible Christian ministry at Shebbear College. He commenced circuit work in 1863. Braund served as President of the Connexion in 1899. Source: Beckerlegge