Part 122 (1/2)

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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly in 1952 and of the Regional National a.s.sembly in Central and East Africa in 1956. He returned to pioneer in the Leeds area in 1966, was elected to the National a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly and was on the National a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly meeting. He pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sembly, 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 a.s.sembly Development Committee for some years and was a member of the National a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly there, and to Norwich in 1948 where he has lived since except for a short special pioneer project in Blackburn in 19501.

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 a.s.semblies and on National Committees throughout her Baha'i life. She pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sembly when formed there in 1948. Together they pioneered to Nicosia, Cyprus in 1953, moving to Famagusta in 1958. Violet pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed away in August 1968 and the House cabled the Baha'i world: ”GRIEVE ANNOUNCE Pa.s.sING LUTFU'LLaH HAKiM DEDICATED SERVANT CAUSE G.o.d. SPECIAL MISSIONS ENTRUSTED HIM, FULL CONFIDENCE REPOSED IN HIM BY MASTER AND GUARDIAN, HIS CLOSE a.s.sOCIATION WITH EARLY DISTINGUISHED BELIEVERS EAST WEST INCLUDING HIS COLLABORATION ESSLEMONT, HIS SERVICES PERSIA BRITISH ISLES HOLY LAND, HIS MEMBERs.h.i.+P 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. 4304.)