This weekend Brian Baldwin's family and close friends will come together for a special thanksgiving service to celebrate his life of 93 years. Brian was a devoted member of Mortimer West End Chapel, a former Chair of The Connexion Trustees, and he also served as President and General Secretary of The Connexion.

Tribute to Brian Baldwin (1932 -2026) by Brenda Baldwin

Many people will remember Brian as he became part of the Connexion as far back as the 1960s and which actively continued until 2008. Even then he attended The Conference until these last few years.

Brian was born in Yorkshire, went to school in Manchester, then University in Liverpool and London (studying biochemistry), and after a brief spell of National Service in Germany, he worked throughout his career as a Research Scientist in plant protection in Bracknell, Berkshire.

Brian met his first wife, Marjorie, in Liverpool before moving to Wargrave. Two children followed, Alison and David. The family became involved in the Countess of Huntington Chapel in the village, and all attended the annual conference. Brian and Marjorie were house parents to the young people, getting to know Graham and Lynn Squibbs, Margaret Staplehurst and others at that time. They have some good stories to tell!

In 1968 Brian was invited to become a Trustee, and subsequently served The Connexion as Chairman, President and General Secretary. He always spoke fondly of his other Trustees with whom he worked for many years, Gilbert Kirby, Roger Davies, Roger Staplehurst, Norman Lloyd, Bernard Mayo and Ken Stone.

Brian loved The Connexion and its people. Perhaps his legacy is that he tried to guide it as Chairman through a time of change. He valued the history of the Connexion, its firm roots in the faith of the Countess and the evangelical revival, but he also wished to see it adapt to the new challenges of the twenty first century. He remembered Gilbert Kirby’s remark at the rededication service at Mortimer West End Chapel, ‘Hats off to the past, coats on for the future’.

This meant revising the scheme to include Believers Baptism, being open to more modern worship, and generally being less stuffy!  An incident I remember from conference (2000 I think) is when Brian and I did a skit on the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Brian went down on one knee and completely hammed it up. Somebody commented, ‘I never seen a Trustee do that sort of thing’.

A deep sadness for Brian was when Marjorie died in1990. Sometime later we met on the restoration project at Mortimer West End Chapel. Brian was on the team as Trustee, and I was a member from Goring, which initiated the project. Despite being rather slow on the uptake, we eventually decided the other was a good thing and married in 1995.

Brian was blessed with a long life (93 years), two very happy marriages, two wonderful children, seven grandchildren and, so far, four great grandchildren.

Brian’s life throughout was centred on Christ, to whom he would give all the glory. Now we can be thankful that he is with the Saviour whom he loved and served.

Brenda Baldwin