William Fuller Gooch (1885-1886)

 

Named after Baptist missionaries William Carey and Andrew Fuller, and descended from Puritan stock, his father, a Wesleyan Methodist, Mr Gooch was converted in 1859 and began preaching at 16 years old until he was 83.

 

At 20 years old he was ordained the pastor of the church in Falsham, Norfolk, then Falmouth and under the recommendation became the pastor of Chatsworth Road, West Norwood. After 8 years there, Bethesda Free Church issued a call. Charles Spurgeon wrote to Bethesda at this time;

 

"Mr Gooch is in all respects a fine man, but surely he will not move from Norwood. If he will move get him".

 

He accepted the call 21st July 1885 and on March 21st 1886 returned to Norwood.

 

Mr Gooch preached in the Queens Hall along with FB Meyer 13th December 1917 after the Belfaour Declaration and the Liberation of Jerusalem by General Allenby. This meeting founded the movement now known as Prophetic Witness Movement International.

 

Upon his death, G Campbell Morgan writes;

 

“Suffice it to say that for many years there has been no man in England for whom I have had a profounder regard as an expositor of the Word.”