ONE of the leading Methodist leaders of the modern age — who spent just short of 70 years as an ordained minister — has died in Tavistock at the age of nearly 93.

The Rev Dr Ron Gibbins will be best remembered for re-building the East End Mission in London and then re-launching the iconic Wesley’s Chapel in City Road, London.

Rev Gibbons and his wife, Olive,  moved to St John’s Court in Tavistock three years ago to be nearer their family, including seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. They include folk musicians Seth, Sean and Sam Lakeman.

Family, friends and leading Methodists travelled from all over the country for the service. They included Lord Griffiths, a former president of the Methodist Conference and now the current minister at Wesley’s Chapel.

Rev Gibbons, born in 1922, was a ‘cockney kid’ who rose to become a luminary in the Methodist Church.

During his teenage years he witnessed Mosley’s blackshirts marching and street battles between communists and fascists.

He suffered appalling burns and injuries in World War Two in an aircraft crash and endured many months of painful operations and treatment, much of it in the hands of the world-famous plastic surgeon pioneer, Sir Archibald McKindoe.

After being ordained he served in gritty northern towns and cities, like Spennymoor and Middlesbrough, before being given the task of building a  Methodist circuit in the new post-war town of Basildon which was springing up in Essex.

He then went back to his East End roots to re-build the East End Mission in Stepney. Leading a team of 20 he turned it into an acclaimed social study centre, hostel, mission and working church.

He worked closely with the famous Church of England Bishop, Trevor Huddlestone and the Roman Catholic parish priest, Derek Warlock, who went on to become Archbishop of Liverpool.

But the down-to-earth reverend was equally at ease with  the fiery dockers’ leader, Jack Dash, who lived in a council tower block next to the mission.

The pinnacle of Rev Gibbons’ career was when he was appointed Superintendent Minister and asked to ‘re-brand’ Wesley’s Chapel in London’s City Road. This is the chapel which John Wesley built, where he lived and died and where he is buried. The late Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, got married at the chapel- and visited during Rev Gibbons’ tenure.

Rev Gibbons and his wife Olive had the Queen to tea while at the chapel, and another visitor was the ebullient South African Bishop Desmond Tutu.

After ‘retiring’, and moving to Kingston in West London, Rev Gibbons spent many more years as a supernumerary minister at Surbiton Hill. Norman Wallwork, a leading light in the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship — who was at Rev Gibbons funeral on Tuesday said:  ‘A Methodist great heart has gone to his rest.’

Son-in-law, Geoffrey Lakeman who delivered the eulogy, said: ‘Ron was small in stature but a giant of a man in thought, word and deed. He demonstrated his deeply-held religious beliefs in the most practical of ways.’

Rev Gibbins’ very last sermon was delivered at St Eustachius Church in Tavistock at the age of 91.

Parkinson’s had robbed him of speech, so it had to be read by another minister, but it was Rev Gibbons’ words, wisdom and spiritual message — in which he urged the congregation to pray for unity and one great church.

Rev and Mrs Gibbons had been married for 66 years and Olive Gibbons will continue to live in Tavistock.