Description:This is an abridged version of his biography from the Handsworth Magazine. The full version is available as a download. Reverend Deeble lived at 35 Livingstone Road, next to the junction with Havelock Road.
Though little more than a year has passed since his appointment as minister of the Westminster Road Congregational Church, the Rev. Charles Deeble is a recognised power in the Nonconformist circles of this district. A fear was expressed when his predecessor, the Rev. G Campbell Morgan accepted a call to Tollington Park, London, that the membership of the Church, which had increased by leaps and bounds during the ministry of that gentleman, would now melt away until it resumed its former proportions. Twelve months have sufficed to show how groundless the fear was. The Church membership at the commencement of 1898 was 400, at the end of December it was 430, a very satisfactory increase having been made. This increase was the more noticeable inasmuch as the Church roll had been subjected to a rigorous revision during the year. Financially too the Church was very successful last year and all the Church organisations have flourished like the proverbial “green bay tree”. A scheme has been adopted for enlarging the Sunday School. Plans for new Infant and other Class Rooms have been accepted and the improvements will, it is hoped, be effected during the coming summer. The additional accommodation is much needed as albeit reluctantly the school managers are compelled to turn applicants for admission away almost weekly. The school attendance is at present 450; it could with new class rooms added, easily be increased to 650.
The Rev. Charles Deeble was born on the outskirts of Plymouth in 1864, his father being an outfitter, well-known and highly esteemed as a conscientious business man. Having had the advantages of a pious ancestry, a Christian home and a godly training, it is not in any sense surprising that Charles Deeble joined the Church at a very early age. Until twenty-one years old he was in business with his father, but the natural bent of his mind was in the direction of the ministry. As early as his twentieth year, he taught from the pulpit and on Sunday was always engaged either in Sabbath School work or preaching at the little mission stations in and around Plymouth.
Shortly after he came of age Charles Deeble went to London, working in the East End Mission. Here he had large experience of that kind of work and served on the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House Relief Fund in 1886. He has often since referred to the mission work, both in the neighbourhood of Plymouth and in London, as an experience of much joy and success – a number of conversions being an interesting feature. In the year 1888, after considerable training under a qualified Theologian, he was entered as a student for the theological course in Bristol Independent College. On leaving college he felt drawn to the church at Shepton Mallet as a fine sphere for work. His zeal and capacity for work soon told on the cause at Shepton, then in a low state, a great number of young men being attracted by his ministry to identify themselves with the place. After three years’ service amongst an appreciative and devoted people, he accepted an invitation to the church at Torrington. Before entering on his pastorate, he married a young lady who has been a true helpmate to him in his ministerial work. He began his career in Torrington on January 4th, 1894. In touch with such associations Mr Deeble was drawn to a close and thorough study of the life and labours of the great Cromwellian pastor
Mention has already been made of Mrs Deeble but Mr Davies has so happily described this lady and the happy home in which she is queen, that we feel we cannot do better than again lay his article under contribution. He says – “Mrs Deeble is a gentle, genial personality, the embodiment of all the graces of wife and mother. But the gem of the home after all is a little two-year old maiden – Gwennie. Who that has once been entertained in Howe Manse can forget he many charms of figure and disposition!” – Gwennie is now a little older, but the rest will stand.