in the British Isles, the Joseph brothers gave long and outstanding
service to the Cause. Jacob (later "Jeff") was Chairman and Albert (then
Ibrahim) a member of the first "Spiritual Council" of the Baha'is of
Manchester. Jacob was a member of the first "All-England Baha'i Council"
in 1922 and of the first National Spiritual Assembly in 1923. Both were
mentioned in and received some Tablets from the Master and both were
warmly regarded by the Guardian for their services to the Faith. Jeff died
in August 1969 in Manchester and Albert in August 1978.
RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER, O.B.E., LL.D., FOR.D.I.P. (CAMBRIDGE)
On his return from Kenya in 1924 where he had served as Assistant
Conservator of Forests since 1920, R. St. Barbe Baker was asked to speak
on the faiths of the Kikuyu under the title: "Some African Beliefs" at the
'Conference of Living Religions within the Empire', and was approached
afterwards by Claudia Stewart-Coles who exclaimed "You are a Baha'i". He
subsequently accepted the Faith and has introduced it to many thousands of
people in all walks of life in many lands, for more than half a century.
The Guardian became the first Life Member of the Men of the Trees in
Palestine in 1929. Later, for twelve consecutive years, he sent an
official message to St. Barbe's World Forestry Charter Gatherings attended
by Ambassadors from up to sixty-two countries each year. St. Barbe took an
active part on the Committee celebrating the Centenary of the Declaration
of the Bab in 1944. After his first Sahara University Expedition carrying
out an ecological survey of 9,000 miles in 1953, and in response to the
Guardian's desire, St. Barbe attended the First African Conference in
Kampala. In 1975 St. Barbe was called upon to advise on tree planting of
the site of the ?ihran House of Worship in consultation with Quinlan
Terry, architect. Afterwards, in collaboration with architect Hossein
Amanat, he recorded his observations for the Universal House of Justice
for the landscaping of their site on Mt. Carmel and for tree-scaping at
Bahji. St. Barbe attended the Intercontinental Conference Nairobi, in
October 1976 and still (1979) at almost 90 is introducing or teaching the
Faith in many lands and would be content to "lay down his bones in service
to the Faith" in his beloved Africa.
MISS JESSICA YOUNG
Historically was the first British pioneer to arise when she went for a
short time to Bristol.
KATHLEEN BROWN (LADY HORNELL)
Was elected to the National Assembly in 1936 and served until 1945. She
pioneered to Nottingham in 1946 where she later married Sir William
Hornell. Her next pioneer post was in Belfast in 1952, then to Venice
(1960-1965) and later to Sardinia (1965-1968). She returned to London to
live at the home of her son-in-law, Hand of the Cause, H. M. Balyuzi. She
passed away in September 1977 and the Universal House of Justice cabled:
"PASSING LADY HORNELL ROBS BRITISH COMMUNITY ONE OF FEW REMAINING LINKS
EARLY DAYS FAITH. HER UNWAVERING FAITH CONSTANT DEDICATED SERVICES PIONEER
TEACHING ADMINISTRATIVE FIELDS OVER SO MANY YEARS ASSURE HER HIGH STATION
ANNALS CAUSE PROVIDE SHINING EXAMPLE PRESENT FUTURE GENERATIONS. ADVISE
HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL MEETING. ASSURE ARDENT PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD
PROGRESS HER LOVING SOUL ABHA KINGDOM."
URSULA SAMANDARI (nee NEWMAN), Knight of Baha'u'llah
First served on the British National Assembly in 1945 and pioneered to St.
Ives in the same year. Ursula became pioneer member of the first Dublin
Assembly in 1948 and pioneered again, a year later, to Belfast. In Belfast
she became member of the first Local Assembly and worked with pioneer Dr.
Mehdi Samandari, whom she married. They subsequently pioneered to Nairobi
in 1953 and later to Somalia, where she was a Knight of Baha'u'llah and
became a member of the first Spiritual Assembly of Mogadiscio, on which
she served from 1954 until 1971. In addition to these experiences, she
served on the National Assembly for North East Africa (1961-1970) and on
the National Assembly of Cameroon since 1972, where she still serves
(1979).
MRS MARION HOFMAN
Came to Britain in 1945 to be married to David Hofman, after having served
the Faith in America with great distinction as a teacher, writer and
administrator. With her husband she pioneered during the Six Year Plan in
Northampton, Birmingham and Oxford, and during the Ten Year Crusade in
Cardiff and Watford. She served on the National Spiritual Assembly and
National Teaching Committee and as an Auxiliary Board member. Since
David's election to the Universal House of Justice, Marion was solely
responsible for the family publishing business of George Ronald.
MISS UNA TOWNSHEND, Knight of Baha'u'llah
Was the first of Hand of the Cause George Townshend's family to embrace
the Faith which her father had espoused many years previously. She was an
active Baha'i youth and on 16 September 1946 became the first pioneer in
Ireland where she opened the 'pivotal centre' of Dublin and was on its
first Spiritual Assembly in 1948. She pioneered to Malta and was the first
Knight of Baha'u'llah in that island in October 1953.
JOSEPH LEE
Accepted the Faith in Manchester in 1932 and was active on committees and
in the teaching work for over thirty years. He served on the National
Spiritual Assembly from 1933 to 1940 and pioneered to Brighton, Torquay
and Exeter, sacrificing material prosperity over many years in the
interests of teaching and pioneering. He passed away in May 1966 at the
age of 55 years.
MRS DOROTHY FERRABY (nee Cansdale)
Became a Baha'i and was active in the London Youth group in the early
1930's. She was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly in 1941 and
served continuously as either Secretary, Treasurer or Recording Secretary
for the next twenty years. She retired when her husband, Hand of the Cause
John Ferraby, left to serve at the World Centre. That the small and
scattered British Baha'i community was held together in the 1940's is
generally recognised to have been due to the dedicated work of Dorothy as
Secretary of the National Assembly working indefatigably in war-torn
London. She became an Auxiliary Board Member in 1954 and was appointed to
the European Board of Counsellors in 1968.
PHILIP HAINSWORTH
Accepted the Faith in Bradford in 1938, and at the outbreak of War was the
first British believer to register as a Baha'i in the Armed Forces. He had
to appeal in Court when seeking exemption from being involved in the
taking of life and, being released from combatant service, was drafted
into the Royal Army Medical Corps. Prior to his release from military
service in 1946, he spent five weeks in Haifa and in the same year
pioneered to Nottingham. He was appointed Chairman of the National Youth
Committee and Secretary of the National Teaching Committee and was elected
to the National Assembly in 1947. He subsequently pioneered to Oxford and
Blackburn. In June 1951 he was one of the party of five pioneers who first
went to Dar-es-Salaam and then on to Kampala, Uganda, where he became
Secretary of the first local Spiritual Assembly in 1952 and of the
Regional National Assembly in Central and East Africa in 1956. He returned
to pioneer in the Leeds area in 1966, was elected to the National Assembly
in 1967 and is still (1979) a member.
WALTER WILKINS
Born in 1883 Walter embraced the Faith when he was about 40 years old. He
was a keen Esperantist through which he learned of the Faith. He served
for many years on the London Spiritual Assembly and was on the National
Assembly for a year in 1934. Responding to the pioneer call of the Six
Year Plan he moved to Birmingham in 1946, to Blackburn in 1947, to Norwich
in 1948, and in 1961 at the age of 78 he pioneered to Canterbury. At the
age of 82 he took a small flat in an old people's home where for the first
time in his life he was able to entertain the friends and hold Feasts and
even an assembly meeting. He passed away after an accident on 19 March
1973.
MRS ALMA CYNTHIA GREGORY
Although she remembers her mother, Louise Ginman, going from town to town
in the United States trying to find the Master, but reaching the place
shortly after He had left, and speaks with feeling of personal involvement
as a Baha'i youth, of many early meetings in London at the homes of Lady
Blomfield, Claudia Coles, Ethel Rosenberg, "Mother" George and many others
of that day, she did not formally register as a Baha'i in the British
Isles until 1942. She pioneered to Northampton in August 1946 and helped
to form its first Assembly, leaving for Liverpool in 1949 for the same
purpose. She subsequently pioneered to Bristol, Exeter and Stornoway; was
the Secretary of the National Youth Committee when it launched its "Baha'i
Youth Bulletin" from 1946 to 1948; was Secretary of the Assembly
Development Committee for some years and was a member of the National
Assembly for seven years between 1948 and 1956.
ROBERT CHEEK
Became a Baha'i in London on Naw-Ruz 1945, pioneered to Bournemouth in
September 1946, to Bristol in 1947 to help form the first Assembly there,
and to Norwich in 1948 where he has lived since except for a short special
pioneer project in Blackburn in 1950-1.
MRS JOAN GIDDINGS (nee BROWNE)
Accepted the Faith in Bradford in 1938. She pioneered first to Cardiff and
later to York and Canterbury, and was active on Assemblies and on National
Committees throughout her Baha'i life. She passed away in Canterbury in
1978. (See also note about developments in Bradford under "Cyril and
Margaret Jenkerson".)
HUGH AND VIOLET MCKINLEY
Hugh McKinley and his mother, Violet McKinley, pioneered from Torquay to
Cardiff in 1947, serving on the first local Spiritual Assembly when formed
there in 1948. Together they pioneered to Nicosia, Cyprus in 1953, moving
to Famagusta in 1958. Violet passed away there in August 1959. In 1966
Hugh pioneered to Syros in the Cyclades Islands (Greece) and returned to
the United Kingdom in October 1977. ("Baha'i World", Vol. XVI, p. 512.)
DR. LUTFU'LLAH HAKIM
Was born into a family of distinguished Jewish medical doctors in 1888.
His grandfather was the first Jew to embrace the Cause and Baha'u'llah
revealed a Tablet in his honour. Lutfu'llah came to study physiotherapy in
England in 1910 and he was in constant attendance on the Master during His
visit in 1911. He went to serve in the Holy Land and returned to England
in 1920 when he accompanied Shoghi Effendi. He later served with
distinction in Persia and returned, at the request of the Guardian, to
Britain in October 1948, where he taught and travelled extensively until
called to Haifa by the Guardian on 14 November 1950. He was appointed to
the first International Baha'i Council. He was elected to the first
Universal House of Justice in 1963 but because of failing health and
advanced age regretfully his resignation was accepted in October 1967
though he consented to serve until the 1968 election. He passed away in
August 1968 and the House cabled the Baha'i world: "GRIEVE ANNOUNCE
PASSING LUTFU'LLAH HAKIM DEDICATED SERVANT CAUSE GOD. SPECIAL MISSIONS
ENTRUSTED HIM, FULL CONFIDENCE REPOSED IN HIM BY MASTER AND GUARDIAN, HIS
CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH EARLY DISTINGUISHED BELIEVERS EAST WEST INCLUDING
HIS COLLABORATION ESSLEMONT, HIS SERVICES PERSIA BRITISH ISLES HOLY LAND,
HIS MEMBERSHIP APPOINTED AND ELECTED INTERNATIONAL BAHA'I COUNCIL, HIS
ELECTION UNIVERSAL HOUSE JUSTICE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED IMMORTAL ANNALS
FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH." ("Baha'i World", Vol. XV, pp. 430-4.)
FRED STAHLER
Arose to pioneer shortly after accepting the Faith in Manchester in 1947.
He pioneered first to Cardiff, then to Bristol, moved for varying periods
to seven other cities and finally settled in Derby in 1965.
MRS. PRUDENCE GEORGE
Born in England in 1896 she moved to Canada in 1928 where she accepted the
Faith in 1941. She first pioneered from St. Lambert to Moncton and then
from Canada to England with her young daughter in 1946 to settle in
Blackburn, Lancs. From there to Norwich and Bournemouth in the Six Year
Plan and then to Edinburgh and Portsmouth. In 1959 she pioneered to
Luxembourg and then in the Nine Year Plan, to Guernsey, to Chelmsford,
Essex and again overseas to the Canary Islands. In 1969 she returned to
England to pioneer in Hereford and St. Austell and then back again to the
Canaries where she was on the first Spiritual Assembly of Arucas. For over
thirty years she served the Cause with utter consecration; carrying out at
least sixteen pioneer projects in three continents. She passed away in
Birmingham, England on 12 July 1974. ("Baha'i World", Vol. XVI, p. 534.)
JOHN LUDLOW MARSHALL
"Johnny" was a Scot, born in 1876, went to work as a tinsmith at the age
of eleven and later, after marriage, settled in Birmingham to pursue his
trade. He was confirmed in the Faith by the Master, Whom he met in 1911
and 1913, when he was, for many years, the only Baha'i in Birmingham.
Johnny kept excellent records of visits and lectures by some of the early
visitors to Birmingham, including Martha Root, Dr. Esslemont, Mountford
Mills and Helen Bishop. At the age of 71 he retired from work and
pioneered to Edinburgh where he died as a result of an accident in January
1948, only three months before the first Spiritual Assembly was formed
there.
MARY OLGA KATHERINE MILLS, Knight of Baha'u'llah
Born in Germany in 1882 with a German father and English mother she grew
up with an insatiable love for travel. In the United States she married an
Englishman. It is not certain when she accepted the Faith but she was on
pilgrimage in 1930 and stayed for a month as companion to Effie Baker. She
was later a great help to the friends in Berlin and Leipzig and gave much
support to Adam Benke who pioneered to Sofia. After suffering many
privations during the war in Germany she wrote to the Guardian in 1947 and
he encouraged her suggestion to pioneer to England. She arrived in early
1948 and settled in her first pioneer post in Nottingham. Within nine
months she was again on the move in response to pioneer calls. Belfast,
Edinburgh, St. Ives, Brighton, and Bournemouth, making six moves in just
over two years by a lady in her late sixties. In 1953 she responded
immediately and was enrolled as a Knight of Baha'u'llah for Malta where,
after numerous vicissitudes and a small but painful accident which
affected her for many months, she was able, some twenty years later, to
witness the formation of the first Spiritual Assembly in Malta. She passed
away, after twenty-seven years of dedicated pioneering which covered four
territories, in May 1974, when the Universal House of Justice cabled:
"PASSING NOBLE SOUL OLGA MILLS GRIEVOUS LOSS BRITISH BAHA'I COMMUNITY. HER
LONG STEADFAST DEVOTION BAHA'U'LLAH SHEDS LUSTRE ANNALS FAITH THAT
COMMUNITY. ISLAND MALTA HISTORICALLY FAMOUS CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN ISLAMIC
ERAS RECIPIENT NEW SPIRITUAL POTENTIALITIES THROUGH HEROIC SERVICE KNIGHT
BAHA'U'LLAH DEDICATED BAND PIONEERS. EXPRESS FRIENDS RELATIVES LOVING
SYMPATHY ASSURE ARDENT PRAYERS PROGRESS SOUL." ("Baha'i World", Vol. XVI,
p. 531.)
ALFRED AND EDITH LUCY SUGAR
After hearing of the Faith from her brother, E. T. Hall, Lucy Sugar
accepted the Faith on 28 November 1921, but Alfred remained agnostic until
about 1925. He became well known for his depth of knowledge of the Faith
and for his cogent argument. He was a teacher of the highest order and was
largely responsible for the development of the Faith around Lancashire and
over the Pennines into Bradford and Leeds. Lucy was a member of the
National Assembly in 1929 and Alfred was a member during eight of the
following thirteen years.
Alfred died in December 1961 at the age of 92 (or 93) and was followed in
March 1966 by Lucy aged 90.
CHARLES WILLIAM DUNNING, Knight of Baha'u'llah
Born in or near Leeds, March 1885. Met and embraced the Faith in 1948 and
within a fortnight offered to pioneer to Belfast. After serious illness
and a period of recuperation in Cardiff, he served in Sheffield until
1953. "Charlie" answered the Guardian's call to settle in unopened
territories in the Ten Year Crusade and he arrived in Kirkwall, Orkney in
September 1953, opening the way, "essentially ... alone" for the founding
of Kirkwall Spiritual Assembly. After four years, broken by ill health and
persecution, he was, for his own safety, sent back to Cardiff. After a bad
fall in 1967 from which he never fully recovered, he passed away quietly
in his sleep on Christmas Day, 1967 in Cardiff. ("Baha'i World", Vol. XIV,
pp. 305-8.)
MISS CLAIRE GUNG
Born in Germany, became a Baha'i in Torquay and later joined the small
Baha'i group in Cheltenham in 1940. She moved to Manchester and later
pioneered to Northampton in November 1946 to become member of the first
Spiritual Assembly there. In 1948 she again pioneered to help form the
first Spiritual Assembly in the "Pivotal Centre" of Cardiff. In 1950,
during the "Year of Respite", Claire became the first pioneer actually to
move from the British community to settle in Africa. Hailed by the
Guardian as the "Mother of Africa" she worked for some years in Tanganyika
and then moved to Uganda where she established a multi-racial
kindergarten; she is still at her pioneer post at the time of writing
(1979).
MRS. LIZZIE FOWLER HAINSWORTH
Became a Baha'i in Bradford in 1946 after replying to her younger son
Philip that she had not become a Baha'i during his absence in the Armed
Forces because "Nobody had asked me to". She pioneered to Nottingham in
1946, to Oxford in 1949 and, at the age of 72, was the first believer in
the British Isles to offer to pioneer in the Two Year Plan to Africa.
(Convention 1950.) She died in Bradford in September 1951 before she could
join her son Philip in Uganda. The Guardian wrote of her through his
secretary, "She has truly shown an exemplary Baha'i spirit in every
way.... He wishes more of the Baha'is would arise to such heights of
devotion and sacrifice."
MISS MARGARET SULLIVAN (later MRS. MARGARET NELSON)
Pioneered to Dublin and was on the first Local Assembly there in 1948. She
was Caretaker of the National Haziratu'l-Quds, London from December 1970
to August 1976, and then became a founder member of the Tameside Assembly,
Lancashire.
CYRIL AND MARGARET JENKERSON
Became Baha'is in Bradford in 1940 and pioneered to Oxford to be members
of the first Assembly there in 1949. (It is of interest to note that in
1938 there were only three Spiritual Assemblies in the British Isles--in
London, Manchester and Bournemouth, and a total of about eighty registered
Baha'is, yet in Bradford there were, during the course of about two years,
so many new registrations that the first Assembly was elected there in
1939 and by 1949 that Community had sent out ten pioneers from its first
twenty-five believers.) The Jenkersons pioneered to Cyprus in 1978 and are
still there (1979).
RICHARD H. BACKWELL
Became a Baha'i in Ceylon in 1944 where he was an officer in the Royal Air
Force. Returning to Britain in 1946, he pioneered in Nottingham,
Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leeds; was a member of the National
Spiritual Assembly from 1947 until January 1955 when he pioneered to
British Guiana, now Guyana. He was for a time part-time manager of the
Baha'i Publishing Trust and Editor of the Baha'i Journal. After his return
from Guiana, he settled with his family in Northern Ireland in 1963 and
again served on the National Assembly until 1968 when he was appointed an
Auxiliary Board Member. His valuable contributions to Baha'i literature
include the compilations with which he was associated--"Pattern of Baha'i
Life", "Principles of Baha'i Administration", "The Covenant of
Baha'u'llah", "Guidance for Today and Tomorrow", "A Faith for Everyman",
and his unique approach to the Christians, "The Christianity of Jesus". He
passed away on 4 October 1972 at the age of 58 when the Universal House of
Justice included in their cable: "GRIEF PASSING EARLY AGE RICHARD BACKWELL
GREATLY ASSUAGED TERMINATION HIS SUFFERING CONTEMPLATION DISTINGUISHED
RECORD SERVICE SOUTH AMERICA BRITISH ISLES SPIRITUAL RADIANCE EVENING
EARTHLY LIFE..." ("Baha'i World", Vol. XV, pp. 525-27.)
MISS ADA WILLIAMS
Pioneered to Motherwell in 1948 and then to Blackpool in 1965. She has
travelled widely to teach the Faith at home and overseas, visiting Malta,
South Africa and Canada where her great spirit was most inspiring; she is
still travelling (1979).
MRS CONSTANCE LANGDON-DAVIES
Was one of the early believers in Torquay where she associated with Mark
Tobey, Bernard Leach and other artists and writers at Dartington Hall. She
accepted the Faith in December 1936 and served on the National Assembly
for fifteen of the years from 1938 until her unexpected death in Oxford in
December 1954. She had pioneered to help form the first Assembly there
1949.
GEORGE K. MARSHALL
Became a Baha'i in 1949 although he had lived most of his life with his
father, one of the early British believers, in Birmingham. (See "John L.
Marshall".) George pioneered for a short while to Belfast and then in 1950
to Glasgow where he lived for seven years, except for a short pioneering
project to maintain the Assembly in Edinburgh. He died at an early age on
30 March 1958.
MRS MARGUERITE PRESTON (nee Wellby)
Became a Baha'i in 1936, was a member of the National Assembly for three
and a half years during the period 1939 to 1945. She married Terence
Preston, a Kenya tea grower, in August 1945 and settled in Kenya where she
was the only Baha'i until the pioneers began to settle under the Two Year
Plan. Her husband died unexpectedly in July 1951 leaving her with three
young children and she and her eldest child were killed in an aeroplane
crash when she was returning to Kenya after a short holiday in England, in
February 1952.
BERNARD LEACH, C.H., C.B.E.
It was through Mark Tobey that world famous potter and author Bernard
Leach became a Baha'i in the early 1930's. He has through his works, his
books, his press, radio and television interviews introduced the Faith
with love, dedication and dignity to people in many spheres of society in
Britain, Japan and America. He was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen and
made a Companion of Honour. Even at ninety years of age, though blind, he
was serving the Cause with distinction through his writings and
interviews. In March 1977, he opened, with much favourable publicity, an
exhibition of his works at the Victoria and Albert Museum London. In 1919,
when Bernard was about to leave Japan, the late Soetsu Yangi, the
well-known Japanese art critic and philosopher and Bernard's friend for
over fifty years, paid tribute: "When he leaves us we shall have lost the
one man who knows Japan on its spiritual side... I consider his position
in Japan, and also his mission in his own country to be pregnant with the
deepest meaning. He is trying to knit the East and West together by art,
and it seems likely that he will be remembered as the first to accomplish
as an artist, what for so long mankind has been dreaming of bringing
about...." He passed away in May 1979 and to the National Assembly the
Universal House of Justice cabled: "KINDLY EXTEND LOVING SYMPATHY
RELATIVES FRIENDS PASSING DISTINGUISHED VETERAN UPHOLDER FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH
BERNARD LEACH. HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM RECOGNITION HIS WORLD-WIDE FAME
CRAFTSMAN POTTER PROMOTER CONCORD EAST AND WEST ADD LUSTRE ANNALS BRITISH
BAHA'I HISTORY AND HIS EAGER WILLINGNESS USE HIS RENOWN FOR SERVICE FAITH
EARN ETERNAL GRATITUDE FELLOW BELIEVERS. ASSURE ARDENT PRAYERS PROGRESS
HIS SOUL."
SAMUEL SCOTT
Became a Baha'i when he was 76 years old and pioneered to Norwich at the
age of 84. He passed away on 31 December 1951, at the age of 86.
JOHN FERRABY, Hand of the Cause of God.