Hi All Obituary of William Comber BURGESS William Comber BURGESS landed as a child in Natal in March, 1855, and could claim a far-reaching Methodist ancestry, his great-grandfather having been associatedwith the Weslweys in their apostolic labours. As a result of the ever-memorable first visit to South Africa of the late Bishop TAYLER, Mr. BURGESS was converted to God at the early age of 12 years. In 1880 he was received on full plan as a Local Preacher in the Pietermaritzburg Circuit, and in 1883 he was engaged by the Einburg Circuit as a Lay Agent. The following year he was accepted by the Conference as a Probationer for our Ministry and for three years did valued work in Kimberley Circuit. After spending three years in Namaqualand he was re -appointed to the Diamond Fields, where he laboured most successfully for a period of eight years, and the memory of his fervent preaching, untiring devotion, and practical sympathy with the poor and needy is still cherised by many. During the Anglo-Boer War he was Acting Chaplain to the 3 rd Divinson of the Imperial Forces. On the battle-field, on the march, and in bivouac he proved himself to be the friend and helper of all, and was able to influence for lasting good many officers and men, and won for him two royal decorations. The hardships and privations did much to undermine his health and necessitated his becoming a supernumeracy for a year.   After a visit to England he laboured in various circuits and then proceeded to Rhodesia. with the object of doing pioneer work in the remotest parts of that vast territory. His hopes, however, of being permitted to carry on an extensive itinerant mission among the natives and scattered Europeans of this wide region were not to be fulfilled, for on March 13, 1909, at a lonely farm-house near Chipongwe in Lusaka's country, North West Rhodesia, he died of fever, at the age of 54 and in the 25th year of his ministry. During his brief illness he was tended with Christian care by kindly hospitable Dutch settlers.   Mr. BURGESS had considerable natural gifts for the work of the ministry, and in the prime of his strength, before body and mind had grown weary, he deeply moved many people by his powerful evangilistic appeals. In his denunciation of evil he was most fearless, in the presence of suffering and sorrow he was gentle as a little child. As a pastor he was tireless and deeply sympathetic, his affectionate nature causing him to enter readily into the joys and sorrows of others. He was generous to a fault, often giving to others beyond the dictates of prudence, and never regretting what he had done. The memory of his life will long live in grateful hearts.   From: Wesleyan Methodist Minutes 1909 page 8-9   Transcribed by   Darryl Allwright darryl.allwright@yahoo.com