The Unfolding Destiny of the British Bahai Community Part 123

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 a.s.sembly. 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 pa.s.sed away quietly in his sleep on Christmas Day, 1967 in Cardiff. ("Baha'i World", Vol. XIV, pp. 3058.)

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 a.s.sembly there. In 1948 she again pioneered to help form the first Spiritual a.s.sembly 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 "n.o.body 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly, Lancashire.

CYRIL AND MARGARET JENKERSON

Became Baha'is in Bradford in 1940 and pioneered to Oxford to be members of the first a.s.sembly there in 1949. (It is of interest to note that in 1938 there were only three Spiritual a.s.semblies 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly until 1968 when he was appointed an Auxiliary Board Member. His valuable contributions to Baha'i literature include the compilations with which he was a.s.sociated-"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 pa.s.sed away on 4 October 1972 at the age of 58 when the Universal House of Justice included in their cable: "GRIEF Pa.s.sING EARLY AGE RICHARD BACKWELL GREATLY a.s.sUAGED TERMINATION HIS SUFFERING CONTEMPLATION DISTINGUISHED RECORD SERVICE SOUTH AMERICA BRITISH ISLES SPIRITUAL RADIANCE EVENING EARTHLY LIFE..." ("Baha'i World", Vol. XV, pp. 52527.)

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 a.s.sociated 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 a.s.sembly for fifteen of the years from 1938 until her unexpected death in Oxford in December 1954. She had pioneered to help form the first a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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, j.a.pan 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 j.a.pan, the late Soetsu Yangi, the well-known j.a.panese 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 j.a.pan on its spiritual side... I consider his position in j.a.pan, 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 pa.s.sed away in May 1979 and to the National a.s.sembly the Universal House of Justice cabled: "KINDLY EXTEND LOVING SYMPATHY RELATIVES FRIENDS Pa.s.sING 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 l.u.s.tRE ANNALS BRITISH BAHa'i HISTORY AND HIS EAGER WILLINGNESS USE HIS RENOWN FOR SERVICE FAITH EARN ETERNAL GRAt.i.tUDE FELLOW BELIEVERS. a.s.sURE 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 pa.s.sed away on 31 December 1951, at the age of 86.