Devoted to his church ...and to his family
Tributes as Reverend Arthur Sherrat dies aged 74
A senior churchman who delivered the Paisley Daily Express as a boy has died.
Rev Arthur Sherratt, who was a former Moderator of the Presbytery of Paisley, passed away aged 74 and his funeral will take place today.
Mr Sherratt was born on February 10, 1944, and was brought up in the Blythswood district in the North End of Paisley.
“He played in the Fountain Gardens as a young boy,” daughter Kim, 48, said.
“And he had a paper round, round about that area. He delivered the Wee Express as a boy.
“He went to Mossvale Church and also to North Primary.
“He sat his exams and got into Camphill.”
After school, the young Arthur started as an apprentice mechanical engineer at RollsRoyce, where he won the Hives Award for best apprentice.
Mr Sherratt married Susan in 1965, having met her at Mossvale Church, Paisley, and the couple lived in the town’s Bank Street.
“My dad just read all the time but his two brothers managed to get him to go to the BB hut at the church on a Saturday night, and that’s where he met my mum,” Kim said.
“My grandpa – my mum’s dad – used to say: ‘Here’s that wee Bible basher come to the door for you’.
“My dad spent Sunday nights in his childhood going to the mission halls in Paisley.
“That where his interest in the church came from.”
It was at the age of 44 that Mr Sherratt decided to join the ministry, following the murder in Paisley of a young member of the Boys’ Brigade, in which Mr Sherratt was a captain.
Karen, Mr Sherratt’s other daughter, said: “It was then he felt the call from God to go into the ministry.”
By this time Mr Sherratt and wife Susan were running a fruit shop in Paisley’s Glasgow Road, opposite the old Kelburne Cinema.
The shop was given up, and while studying Divinity at the University of Glasgow, Mr Sherratt drove a taxi to keep the money coming in.
And it was in 1994 that he was ordained into Kilbarchan West Church, where he remained for 20 years, and during which time he became Moderator of the Presbytery.
“That was the proudest moment of his career,” Kim said.
During his time at Kilbarchan Mr Sherratt became chaplain to the Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood when she was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
“He loved that, and he got to go to Holyrood for dinner with Prince Edward and Sophie,” Karen said.
Mr Sherratt, who was also an Army chaplain, was a great reader all of his life.
“Karen and I read all the time,” Kim said.
“And it’s because we all went to the library every single week and he would get us books. “That’s where we get it from.” Karen added: “The only way you’ll learn is if you read, is what he said.”
She said of her father: “He was very fair. He just was fantastic. He didn’t judge, he never ever judged anyone.”
Kim said: “He ever fell out with anyone or held a grudge against anyone.”
As well as his wife and daughters, Mr Sherratt is survived by grandchildren Sarah, Emma, Max and David.
Mr Sherratt’s funeral is at Wallneuk North Church, Paisley, at 1pm, today, and afterwards at Woodside Crematorium for 2pm.