Published: 15/01/2009 00:00
THIS photograph has been brought to the Bugle by Peter Burns of Dudley; it dates from the late 1940s and shows the Bible class gathered outside the Vicar Street Methodist Church, Dudley. As some of you will know, the Vicar Street church closed at the end of August, 2008, and it was then that this picture was given to Peter.
Bert Bissell (1902-1998) founded the Vicar Street Bible class in 1925. On VJ-Day, 1945, he led a group of boys from the Bible class to the summit of Ben Nevis, where they built a cairn as a memorial to the new peace. The Ben Nevis Peace Cairn is now a significant landmark. Bert Bissell was a life-long peace campaigner and in 1987 he was awarded the prestigious World Methodist Peace Award.
Peter Burns has no names for the young Dudley lads in this picture, except for one. Sitting on the far right of the second row is Dudley's greatest sporting son, the football legend Duncan Edwards (1936-1958). Can anyone name any of the Manchester United star's Vicar Street Bible classmates?
Peter Burns has no names for the young Dudley lads in this picture, except for one. Sitting on the far right of the second row is Dudley's greatest sporting son, the football legend Duncan Edwards (1936-1958). Can anyone name any of the Manchester United star's Vicar Street Bible classmates?
