Off To Africa.

August 1937

Mexborough and Swinton Times August 27, 1937

Off To Africa.

The best wishes of a large number of friends and acquaintances will accompany Miss Mary Needham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Needham, 95, Hirst Gate, Mexboro’, when she leaves England to-clay on the s.s. Carnarvon, en route for Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Miss Needham is embarking on this 2,000 mile trip to marry the Rev. Reginald Place, at present Minister of the South-end Methodist Church, Port Elizabeth. The wedding is to take place at the end of October at Pretoria when the South African Methodist Conference is held there.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Place will return to Port Elizabeth until January, when Mr. Place expects to be transferred to another part of the country. Miss Needham is well-known in Mexborough. A former pupil of Mexborough Secondary School, she was trained at Saffron Walden College, Essex, and, after holding a teaching appointment for a short time at Bentley, took up a position on the staff of the Doncaster Road Junior School, which she has held for six years.

For the last ten years Miss Needham has been a teacher at the Trinity Methodist Church Sunday School, and two year ago she was appointed Superintendent of the School.

Mr. R. Place, too, is known personally by a good many people in Mexborough. A native of Co. Durham, he later moved to South Africa, and attended an ecclesiastical college in Cape Town; he entered the Ministry in the South African Methodist Church. Mr. Place for some time lived in Mexborough, and was for a few months chauffeur to Dr. Huey, Medical Officer of Health for Mexborough.

He left about six years ago, but returned for a few weeks at Christmas when on furlough.

Miss Needham’s popularity has been revealed by the many presents she has already received. Among them are a cut glass grape fruit dish from the staff of the Doncaster Road Junior School, a fountain pen from the children of the Trinity Methodist Sunday School, and a travelling wardrobe and cake stand from the Sunday School teachers.

Miss Needham states that her whole heart is in the Ministry of the Methodist Church, but she is not going out as a missionary as is commonly thought.