Peter Franklin was one of the first members of the fledgling Fellowship back in 1970. He was one of CCF's first elders and continued to serve until the Fellowship's Barnham area group became independent. These days Peter and Olive can be found at Chichester Riverside Fellowship, with Peter being just as busy as ever having recently released his first book.
Peter Franklin was born during the 2nd world war into a Roman Catholic family in North London. He was the middle child of three and was educated by the Jesuits from whom he acquired a firm faith in God. Having developed an obvious ability in the fields of maths and physics, Peter went on to obtain a London honours degree in civil engineering. It was whilst on a marine engineering project in Bognor that Peter met Roger Price when Roger came to share a flat with him.
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It was through Roger's testimony that Peter was convicted of his need for God to take over the whole of his life. He was drawn into the Fellowship which was very small at that time, one of the few people there being Olive D'Arcy who was later to become his wife.
When Peter's engineering project came to an end he returned to London where he was heavily involved with the Regents Park Fellowship (now New Life Fellowship, Tufnell Park). Peter and Olive were eventually married in 1974 and settled in Barnham, West Sussex. Two children arrived to complete their family (Olive already had a daughter).
Various interesting jobs in the engineering and building trade came Peter's way including involvement in the building of the Pinelog Building at Southwater, Lurgashall where the children's summer camps were held for many years. Much of the time during these years was spent trusting the Lord in faith for all their needs, particularly between jobs.
Peter was made an elder in the Fellowship in 1975, a position he held for some years until the group living in the Barnham area became independent. Peter and Olive's children are now all grown up, living locally and have given them five grandchildren. Peter has always been a keen Bible Student and has just published his first book