Phyllis Trowse
1914 - 2008
It is an honour to be asked to write an obituary for Phyllis Trowse who has died aged 93. She was highly valued throughout the Circuit for her work as a Local Preacher, and a greatly loved and respected member of Rosebery Road Church. A service led by Phyllis was always a meaningful and helpful experience, and we were privileged at Rosebery Road to celebrate with her landmarks in her long career. By the end of her life she had achieved seventy-five years as an accredited Local Preacher. To paraphrase a hymn which meant so much to her, “She had a gospel to proclaim.”
Phyllis was by birth a Yorkshirewoman, having been born in July 1914 to Ernest and May Trowse at Kirkstall near Leeds. Ernest came originally from Norwich, but his work had taken him to Yorkshire. The First World War began only one month after Phyllis was born, so her father had to leave his new baby when he volunteered to serve in the Army.
The family were Primitive Methodists, and Phyllis and her brother Bill grew up attending Horsforth Primitive Methodist Chapel, Phyllis eventually becoming a Sunday School teacher. It was always fascinating to hear stories of her happy childhood and of customs which have become a thing of the past.
After leaving school she felt called to be a Local Preacher and began her training under the care of Arthur Lax, a man who she described as “absolutely wonderful at bringing on young Local Preachers.” She passed the exams which led to accreditation in 1933, winning a Connexional prize for gaining 98% in the Old Testament paper.
In her working life, Phyllis was a teacher, at first working as an uncertificated teacher until opportunity arose for her to take a three year course for a Diploma in Domestic Science at a college in Leeds. Gaining this qualification meant that she would be accepted by the Colonial Education Service for work in Africa.
As a result of her involvement in the Girl’s League opportunity arose for her to go to Northern Rhodesia [now Zambia] in 1949. One of her friends in the League was married to the headteacher of the Government Boy’s School in Lusaka. He was desperately short of teachers, and invited Phyllis as a supply teacher. However, she was soon offered a permanent contract, moving on in 1950 to Luanshya in the copper belt.
Phyllis has written warmly of her days in Africa, particularly of her time at Mindolo which she described as “the most interesting, demanding and fulfilling period of my life.” She was now employed by the African Education Department, and had been appointed Principal of the African Girl’s Boarding School there, beginning work in January 1953. Schools such as this were beginning to overcome the long-standing prejudice against education for girls. The pupils lived in whitewashed thatched houses arranged in small ‘villages’. Doing their own cooking on fires outside the houses, and growing their own vegetables. As many of them came from long distances they only had two holidays a year, but Phyllis remembered that they had plenty of fun and relaxation.
Her next appointment when she returned from leave in July 1959 was as Woman Education Officer in charge of developing girl’s education in the Northern Province, an area almost the size of England. This job involved much landrover travelling over rough terrain . She had many hair-raising tales to tell of this period of her life, but unfortunately the long journeys on potholed tracks led to what she referred to as ‘landrover back’. She was very disappointed when this meant premature retirement from work in Africa on health grounds.
Returning to England in 1963, she joined the staff at Thorpe Grammar School, meeting as colleagues fellow Methodists Ivor Harrowven and John Howard. Her parents had moved to Norwich when Ernest retired, so this was now her ‘home base’. Becoming a member at Rosebery Road, she taught in the Senior Department of the Sunday School as well as joining Calvert Street Circuit’s team of Local Preachers.
Phyllis retired from Thorpe Grammar School in 1974, but was certainly not ready to ‘put her feet up’. Having by now overcome her back problem, she offered her services to the Methodist Missionary Society. She could not get a work permit to return to Africa, but the Church Missionary Society needed a teacher of examination needlework in Hong Kong. Phyllis therefore spent three “happy and productive years” teaching at St Catherine’s Church Missionary School for Girls in a suburb of Kowloon.
Returning to Norwich, she spent the rest of her retirement as a very active Local Preacher, speaker at women’s meetings, and as a valued Bible Study leader. Eventually old age led to her move to Cromwell House where she could have the care she now needed. Perhaps inevitably, her last few years have been difficult for someone who had led such an active life.
We celebrate and honour her memory, and rejoice that after a long earthly life of commitment and service she has now entered into eternal life.
by Ursula Frankin