One of our leading churchmen in past times also gave distinguished service in helping veterans claim their rightful pensions after the Great War of 1914-18 for which he was honoured with the MBE.

John Robert Arnold was a stalwart supporter and worker for the Congregational (later the United Reformed) Church in Eastgate for all of his life, the third generation of his family with such close connections and holding many posts of responsibility. He was born at Bourne in 1885 and served with the Northamptonshire Regiment during the war but was invalided home from France because of injury.

It was this experience that prompted his later work for disabled ex-servicemen, joining the Bourne War Pensioners' sub-committee and when it expanded, moved to the Grantham, Boston and District War Pensioners' Committee with which he was associated for 40 years, eventually becoming its chairman and in 1958, his service for the cause was recognised when he was awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours List.

The son of a shopkeeper, for 27 years he was probation officer for Bourne and although only a year away from retirement, he was appointed Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths for the town when he was 64, a position he held for 11 years. His church record was impressive, being a preacher of some standing after taking the pulpit in 1928 when the Congregational Church was without a pastor and being appointed Sunday School superintendent in 1934.

He was also the church secretary for a spell, secretary of the church's Band of Hope, a former chairman of the Lincolnshire Congregational Union, a life deacon of the Eastgate church, one-time president of the Bourne Free Church Federal Council, president of the Bourne Christian Fund, a member of the Bourne Brotherhood and treasurer of the Abbey Lawn Bowling Club where he was also a regular player.

John Arnold married Miss Martha Pell on 26th April 1910 and they celebrated their golden wedding in 1960. He died suddenly in his sleep at his home in Willoughby Road on Sunday 2nd May 1965, aged 80, having spent the day at church, attending Sunday School in the afternoon followed by evening service. Mrs Arnold died in 1978, aged 92.

See also

Willoughby Road     The United Reformed Church