John Douglas Froud: 1952-2026
John Froud was a legend in the schools and Christian community of West Yorkshire, and, indeed, beyond - his death leaves a significant gap in Christian witness to schools and churches in West Yorkshire
John was a “son of the Manse”, being the second child of the Revd George D Froud and Joan Froud. He was born in Macclesfield, moving to Bradford in 1960. He was truly a son of the city and a lifetime supporter of its football team.
John’s father came out of the Old Baptist Union and belonged to a significant lineage of Old Baptist Union leaders. John delighted in researching his ancestry, but his own commitment was entirely to the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
His father was minister of Leeds Road Baptist Church in Bradford and John gained a place at Bradford Grammar School, then trained as a teacher. During this time his father moved to South Bank Baptist Church, Middlesbrough in 1969 and John met Sheena in Middlesbrough in 1970, who subsequently became his wife and the love of his life.
John and Sheena were both training to be teachers and subsequent to qualification John found a post at Wycliffe Church of England Middle School in Shipley, Bradford. Sheena’s teaching career started in Hambledon, but later joined Wycliffe Middle School. Both were musicians, but John had a particular skill in being able to take words and attach them to tunes, which was to mark out a very significant part of his life.
In Shipley John and Sheena joined Shipley Baptist Church, where the Revd D. Keith Dixon was minister. The church underwent a season of growth under the ministry of Keith Dixon’s successor, the Revd Richard J. Lewis. John played many significant roles in the church, with two terms of service as church secretary and then, recently, as a deacon of the church, a post he occupied until his death. His forte was the leadership of worship and in this he excelled.
Whilst a very popular teacher at Wycliffe, a middle school, John experienced a calling to a new vocation as an evangelist and teacher with a wider portfolio. The head teacher at Wycliffe, Methodist, David Hartley, and others, including the church leadership at Shipley, encouraged John to establish the Zephaniah Trust to “take light into dark corners” and develop a ministry in schools across Bradford, and then later the lower Yorkshire Dales, the Spen Valley and further afield in Manchester, the Isle of Wight and Malvern. The Trust focused on taking assemblies and offering Christian education to a wide variety of primary and secondary schools, over 60 in total.
Under John’s leadership as director, the Zephaniah Trust flourished and organised many in-school and community events. John had a great ability to take a Biblical text and turn that into a singable song. Each year, Shipley Baptist Church would choose a text for the year and at the annual January Covenant service John would have produced a singable song based on the text.
John was a classic dissenter, always reflecting on what a Christian community should be like. Yet, he was highly respected within other Christian traditions in West Yorkshire and regularly led the annual services in Bradford Cathedral for children passing from junior to secondary schooling.
With John’s deep interest in dissenting history he was a member of the Baptist Historical Society and was always researching some aspect of Baptist and Old Baptist Union history, not least in connection to his own family.
When the late Revd Stan Woods was retiring from his work as Association Missioner in the Yorkshire Baptist Association, John took over some of Stan’s collection of Bible exhibits and willingly organised “Bible Times” exhibitions throughout West Yorkshire. He was anxious to maintain the networking of the Baptist communities in Bradford and ensured the annual gathering on Maundy Thursday for several years.
Within the Zephaniah Trust he gave opportunity to many young people with artistic abilities – musical, verbal and visual – to explore and develop their talent. He encouraged these young people to flourish in their vocation and use their talents in a wide variety of settings.
John had a deep commitment to seeking to heal injustice in the world and took advantage of an invitation from Christian Aid to experience their work first hand. This made him someone who worked with all the churches in Shipley to organise events at Christmas and in Christian Aid Week to promote the work of international development and aid.
John was so highly regarded by many that a group of people in Yorkshire nominated him to be President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. However he did not succeed in election, which was no doubt a loss to the Union.
In October 2025 John played during the “Big Sing”, an event organised by Shipley Christians Together as part of Bradford City of Culture 2025 in the iconic United Reformed Church in Saltaire. The following day he led worship and preached at Shipley Baptist Church, despite being ill. He was hospitalised soon after and, sadly, deteriorated. Whilst in hospital his visitors included countless clergy and ministers. He died at home peacefully in February surrounded by his family – his wife Sheena, son Alex, daughter Cath, their spouses, Yvonne and Scott, and his four grandchildren, Thea, Seth, Isaac and Keir.
A Service of Thanksgiving was held at Shipley Baptist Church on 27 March and attended by several hundred people, whilst being relayed to other local churches in the district.
Keith G Jones