▶Date of birth:   22 April 1854       Place of birth: St Malo, Brittany, France

▶Father: John Le Gros      Mother: Evelina

▶Spouse(s): Harriet Ellis Bigwood     Date(s) of marriage:   26 April 1886      Place(s) of marriage: Church of the Observatoire, Brussels

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist minister); Gas Office clerk

▶Lifestory: Armand John (also Jean) Thomas Le Gros was born, a British subject, in St Malo, Brittany in 1854, the son of Jersey-born printer and compositor John Le Gros, and his French wife Evelina. At the time of the 1861 census he lived with his parents and family in Pentonville, London, but by 1871 resided with his aunt in St Brelade, Jersey, where at the age of sixteen he was a Clerk in a Gas Office.

In 1878 he entered the Methodist Church and travelled out to Brussels as a Minister “on trial” in Brussels (France Circuit 8); the experiment must have been successful, as he remained and in 1886 married Harriet Ellis there, the eldest daughter of Thomas Cook Bigwood, brewer’s Managing Clerk, of Portsmouth; the couple had three daughters, the first of whom was born at 47 Rue Lefrancy, in Brussels. He was still listed as serving in Brussels until at least 1888, and his first subsequent Methodist station was at Guernsey and Sark from 1890 until 1893, after which he was allocated to Jersey 1894-7, the final two years as Superintendent Minister.

1898 brought him to mainland England, in charge of the Liskeard district in Cornwall, where in 1901 he and his family occupied Wesley House. From Cornwall he was sent into the Midlands, as Superintendent Minister of the Birmingham (New Town Row) district 1901-3, Rugby 1904-6, and then Cheltenham 1907-9; between 1908 and 1910 the family lived at the Wesleyan Superintendent’s residence, 27 Clarence Square, Pittville.

After Cheltenham he moved east, to Great Yarmouth 1910-12. and then as Superintendent Minister for Hampton, Richmond-on-Thames in Surrey 1914-16, then Stamford, Lincolnshire until 1931. He continued with church duties, later that year, while living in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, speaking at another Methodist rally.

Le Gros lived latterly at 4 Wye Cliff Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, where he died on the last day of 1943, at the age of eighty-nine. His estate at death was valued at just over £1,700.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   Rugby     Moved from Pittville to: Great Yarmouth

▶Date of death:   31 December 1943     Place of death: Birmingham

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 17417

Contributor(s):  John Simpson