Baha'i Community of the British Isles, 1844-1963

The Bahá’í Community of the British Isles

1844–1963

by

Adam Thorne, Moojan Momen, Janet Fleming Rose, Earl Redman

George Ronald Oxford

George Ronald, Publisher Oxford www.grbooks.com

© Adam Thorne, Moojan Momen, Janet Fleming Rose, Earl Redman 2023 All Rights Reserved

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978–0–85398–662–1

1 Early Interactions between the Bahá’í Faith and Britain (1844–1898)

2 The Early Years of the British Bahá’í Community (1898–1911)

3 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Britain (1911–1913)

4 The First World War and After (1914–1921)

5

6

8 The Africa Campaign and the Two Year Plan (1950–1953)

9 The

Early Interactions between the Bahá’í Faith and Britain (1844–1898)

Moojan Momen

Many think of British Bahá’í history as beginning with such people as Mary Virginia (Minnie) Thornburgh-Cropper, an American, who in 1898 is said to have become the first Bahá’í resident on British soil; or with Ethel Rosenberg, who is said to have become the first British Bahá’í in 1899; or in 1901 with Thomas Breakwell, who is credited by Shoghi Effendi as ‘the first English believer’.1 However, owing to Britain’s role as a global superpower in the 19th century, the wide-ranging travels of many British people and the residence in a large number countries of British diplomats, consular staff, missionaries and merchants, there were numerous interactions between the British and the Bahá’í Faith long before 1898. This chapter briefly reviews a few highlights from these earliest interactions.2

Accounts of the Báb

The first published report in Britain of an episode in the history of the new religion was recorded in London in the Morning Advertiser on 16 April 1845, just under a year from the first declaration by the Báb of His mission on 23 May 1844. It related to the trial and condemnation to death in Baghdad of the Báb’s disciple and Letter of the Living Mullá ‘Alí Basṭámí. After the Báb declared His mission in Shiraz, He sent His first disciples, the Letters of the Living, to various parts of Iran and the neighbouring countries. One of these disciples, Mullá ‘Alí Basṭámí was sent to the Ottoman province of Iraq to apprise the senior Shi‘i clerics in Najaf and Karbala of the claims of the Báb. He caused a great stir and was

1 Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 259

2 For a more detailed look at these interactions, see Momen, Bábí and Bahá’í Religions

2

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arrested, taken to Baghdad and tried in a court convened by the governor of the province and attended by the senior Sunni and Shi‘i clerics of Iraq. The Morning Advertiser simply read:

The German Universal Gazette informs us . . . that a dispute has taken place between Turkey and Persia, in consequence of the Pacha of Bagdad having condemned to death a Persian dervish for sacrilege, for forming a new sect by preaching for an apocryphal Koran.3

Even before this, however, British consular and diplomatic personnel had been reporting this episode. Mullá ‘Alí had with him the first book composed by the Báb after His declaration of His mission, the Qayyúmu’lAsmá’. The governor asked the senior clerics for a judgement on this book and what to do with Mullá ‘Alí. Henry Rawlinson, the British consul in Baghdad, reported these events to Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador in Istanbul in a letter dated 8 January 1845:

I have the honor to report for Your Excellency’s information, the following circumstances which are at present causing much excitement at this place, and which threaten in their consequences to give rise to renewed misunderstanding between the Persian and Turkish Govts.

About three months ago, an inferior priest of Shiraz appeared in Kerbela, bearing a copy of the Koran which he stated to have been delivered to him by the forerunner of the Imam Mehdi, to be exhibited in token of his approaching advent. The book proved on examination to have been altered and interpolated in many essential passages, the object being, to prepare the Mohammedan world for the immediate manifestation of the Imam, and to identify the individual to whom the emendations of the text were declared to have been revealed, as his inspired and true precursor. It was in consequence pronounced by a part of the Sheeah divines at Nejef and Kerbela, to be a blasphemous production, and the priest of Shiraz was warned by them of the danger, which he incurred in giving

3 Morning Advertiser, 16 Apr 1845, p. 3, col. 3. See ‘Persia – or – Mahometan Schism’ at https://Bahaipedia.org/"Persia_-_or_-_Mahometan_Schism" (accessed 22 Jun 2022). The source of this account is the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 Apr 1845, pp. 933–4. The same information was carried by Illustrated London News on 19 Apr 1845; see Egea, Apostle, vol. 1, p. xvi.

the bahá ’ í community of the british isles

a melodious soft voice, which struck me much. Being a Sayyid, he was dressed in the habits of that sect, as were also his two companions. In fact his whole look and deportment went far to dispose one in his favour. Of his doctrine I heard nothing from his own lips, although the idea was that there existed in his religion a certain approach to Christianity.8

Bahá’u’lláh

It is reported in Bahá’í histories that when Bahá’u’lláh was about to be sent from Baghdad to Istanbul in 1863, the British consul in Baghdad, Lt.-Col. Arnold Burrowes-Kemball, made an offer that he would try to obtain from the British government permission for him to go to England or India. However, although Burrowes-Kemball did report on the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and the Bábís in Baghdad,9 there is no mention of this offer in British government archives. It may be that, since Bahá’u’lláh declined the offer, Burrowes-Kemball did not mention the matter in his official reports to the British ambassador at Istanbul.

Similarly, when Bahá’u’lláh was about to be sent away from Edirne, Rev. Leon Rosenberg, who was an Austrian Jew working for the British Society for the Propagation of Christianity among the Jews, intervened to try to prevent the unjust treatment of Bahá’u’lláh, writing a letter to James Blunt, the British vice-consul in Edirne. Blunt forwarded this letter to Henry Elliot, the British ambassador at Istanbul, together with his own observation:

All I can say is that the Shek [Shaykh, i.e. Bahá’u’lláh] in question has led a most exemplary life in this city; that he is regarded with sympathy, mingled with respect and esteem, by the native Mahomedans and has received good treatment at the hands of the Ottoman Authorities; and that the general impression here is that the persecution he is now made the object originates with the Persian Government and its Legation at Constantinople.10

A few years after Bahá’u’lláh’s arrival in ‘Akká, a long letter appeared in The Times in 1871, written by Dr Thomas Chaplin (see fig. 2), a British medical missionary of the same missionary society as Rev. Rosenberg.

8 Browne, Materials, p. 262; Momen, Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, pp. 74–5

9 Momen, Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, pp. 181–2.

10 Blunt to Elliot, no. 54, 6 Aug. 1868: FO 195 901; see Momen, Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, p. 189.

early interactions between the bahá’í faith and britain (1844–1898) 7

He had visited ‘Akká from his base in Jerusalem and succeeded in meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and hearing an exposition of the Bahá’í Faith from him. He describes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, then aged 27, in the following terms:

We were received by his son, who is apparently about 30 years of age, and has a fine intellectual countenance, with black hair and beard, and that sallow, melancholic look which distinguishes nearly all Persians of the intelligent and religious class. He was dressed in a robe of white flannel, with a cap of the same material, and a small white turban. Over his shoulders was thrown a brown cloth abbai. He appeared pleased to see us, but objected to answer questions respecting the origin and history of the sect. ‘Let us speak of things spiritual,’ he said, ‘what you are now asking me is of no importance.’ But on our telling him that people in England would naturally be curious to know in what way so remarkable a religious movement had arisen, and who were the originators of it, he gave us the information here detailed. He had a remarkably earnest, almost solemn manner, spoke excellent Arabic fluently, and showed a minute and accurate knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, as well as an acquaintance with the history of religious thought in Europe. Our interview lasted two hours, during the whole of which time an animated conversation was maintained. Like a true Oriental, he seldom gave a direct answer to a question upon any point of doctrine, but replied by another question, or by an illustration, his object throughout apparently being to convince his questioners of what he considered to be truth. He seemed to speak as one conscious of possessing superior light – as a great teacher might speak to his disciples. ‘Why,’ he inquired, ‘did not the Jews, who at the time of our Lord’s advent were in expectation of their Messiah, believe on him?’ And, assenting to our reply that it was because they

Fig. 2: Dr Thomas Chaplin

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another that he considered it to be ‘the greatest light that has come into the world since the time of Jesus Christ’.28 In addition, British travellers, missionaries, merchants and others were publishing reports of the new religion in Iran, albeit the information given was frequently erroneous.

By the last decade of the 19th century, thanks partly to the research of Prof. E.G. Browne, interest in Britain had shifted from the religion of the Báb to the Bahá’í Faith, although the name ‘Bábí’ continued to be used for both. When the prominent statesman Lord Curzon (1859–1925, later Minister for Foreign Affairs) wrote his influential two-volume book Persia and the Persian Question (1892), he was clear that most Bábís were now Bahá’ís and he defended the new religion from some of the charges made against it by its enemies and critics.

The earliest Bahá’ís in Britain

According to the standard Bahá’í sources, Mary Virginia (Minnie) Thornburgh-Cropper was the first Bahá’í resident of Britain; Ethel Rosenberg was the first British person to become a Bahá’í and the spiritual honour of being the first English Bahá’í was given by Shoghi Effendi to Thomas Breakwell. The chronological historical sequence is, however, somewhat different.

During the 19th century, a number of Iranians came to Britain to study or for purposes of diplomacy or trade. The first Bahá’í to live for any substantial period of time in Britain, as far as can be determined at present, was Mírzá ‘Alí Muḥammad Khán, usually known as Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá, who later held the title of Muvaqqaru’d-Dawlih (1865–1921) and was the father of the Hand of the Cause Mr Hasan Balyuzi. He was an Afnán born and brought up in Shiraz. He was in India in 1883 when Ḥasan ‘Alí Khán Navváb arrived and invited him to accompany him to London. He was in London from May 1884 to March 1886 studying in particular the English language. During his time in Britain he became engaged to a British lady, Ada Sinclair,29 but no marriage resulted owing to parental

28 Respectively Prof. J. Estlin Carpenter (see p. 372 and n) as reported in Christian Commonwealth, 22 Jan 1913, p. 1 and Prof. Lewis Campbell as told to Louise Wright (see p. 175n), see Bahá’í World, vol. 8, pp. 880–1.

29 Although Hasan Balyuzi writes Ida Sinclair on the back of her photograph, it is unlikely he heard her name spoken by his father and there is no likely Ida Sinclair in the 1881 census. There is however an Ada Sinclair and these two names would be written identically in Persian. Ada Sinclair was in the 1881 census, a

early interactions between the bahá’í faith and britain (1844–1898) 15 disapproval (see fig. 6). During the course of this time, he met and became friends with Edward Granville Browne, who was then a medical student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School in London but who had developed a great interest in Iran and was studying the Persian language, which he no doubt was eager to practise with any Iranians he met. It is unlikely that Mírzá ‘Alí made efforts to teach the Bahá’í Faith while in England. An attitude of the superiority of the English race, religion and culture bred into all educated British people during this Victorian Age would have made even broaching the subject of introducing an obscure non-English religion with no history or culture behind it very difficult. Muvaqqaru’dDawlih returned to Shiraz and married Munavvar Khánum, who was a member of the Afnán family. He was Consul-General in Bombay in 1901, and then Foreign Office agent for the Iranian government in Shiraz and the Gulf Ports in 1903, before becoming governor of Bushihr (1911–15). When the British captured Bushihr in 1915, he was sent to Bombay and Poona and only returned to Iran in 1920 to take up a post as Minister for Public Works in Tehran. However, he died shortly afterwards in 1921.

The first British subject to be enrolled into the Bahá’í Faith, and probably the second person to become a Bahá’í in the whole of the western world, was Marian Augusta Miller, who became a Bahá’í in Chicago in the spring of 1894, through the classes of Ibrahim Kheiralla.30 Her father,

17-year-old pianist, born in Kensington and living at 6 Durham Place, Kensington with her mother Rose, her sister Rose and her brother George. Her father, George Sinclair, had been a commercial traveller who had died in 1875. In 1891, Ada married Ernest Leopold Schneider, an architect, who in 1917 changed his surname by deed poll to Taylor. They had two daughters.

30 Stockman, Bahá’í Faith in America, vol. 1, pp. 33, 35. On the classes of Ibrahim Kheiralla, see Stockman, Bahá’í Faith in America, vol. 1, pp. 48–84. See also

Fig. 6: Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá Muvaqqaru'd-Dawlih and Ada Sinclair

The Early Years of the British Bahá’í Community (1899–1911)

Moojan Momen

Britain at the close of the 19th century and the opening decades of the 20th (the last few years of the Victorian era and the whole of the Edwardian era) was at the height of power and prosperity; its colonies spanned the globe, its goods penetrated every market, its armies were almost universally victorious, and it led the world in scientific, technological and cultural achievements. Most British people had no doubt of the superiority of British civilization over all other civilizations. But despite this, there was a problem at the core of this culture and civilization. Its religious foundations, Protestant Christianity, the foundations of its way of ordering the world, the source of its morals and values, was experiencing a ‘crisis of faith’ or a ‘crisis of doubt’. While the Church of England dominated the religious landscape and had immense power socially and politically, its grip on the upper middle and upper classes was noticeably waning. The causes of this crisis were various and have been much examined and discussed. For present purposes, it is enough to say that these causes included the rationalism, scepticism and distrust of tradition born from the Enlightenment; the fact that emerging evidence from science (in particular the geological evidence for the age of the earth and then the theory of evolution) created a conflict with traditional religious beliefs, leading to science gradually taking over the position of religion as the arbiter and guarantor of truth and plausibility; at the same time, the critical study of the Bible had thrown into doubt the idea that this was a God-given inerrant text. Simultaneously, increasing knowledge among educated British people of the religious systems of the East, particularly Vedanta Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism and Sufism, threw into question the previously unquestioned superiority of Christianity over all other religions; and this was especially true for the thousands of people who were compelled to live at close quarters with people of other religions owing to the needs of the British Empire. In addition, liberal Protestant

the early years of the british bahá’í community (1898–1911) 21

Christianity was faced with strong currents such as the movement within the Anglican church towards Catholic dogma and ritualism, as exemplified by the Oxford Movement, and the fervour of the evangelical revival of the late Victorian period. On the social front, there was the questioning of the values, traditions and assumptions of the churches caused by the rising women’s movement and the frustration among many that the traditional churches were not doing enough to alleviate the all-too-apparent poverty in British society.

This crisis of faith produced a sub-section of society (and it should be recognized that in the early 20th century it was only a small but very influential percentage of the total population, mainly in the upper middle and upper classes) among whom there was an energetic, sometimes frenetic, search for a new foundation to give meaning to life and a moral foundation to society. This gave rise to a welter of groups following various interests, many of them interacting with each other in what may be called a counter-culture (although it should be emphasized that those participating in this counter-culture outwardly lived social lives that were not noticeably different from those of their neighbours except in the meetings they attended, see pp. 95–6). Some turned to a more ecumenical form of Christianity, building bridges among the various Protestant denominations; some sought a more authentic foundation for Christianity in Britain by returning to a Celtic Christianity or trying to return to a foundational doctrinal and ritual platform before the schisms between the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches (ante-Nicene Christianity); others turned to ‘eastern’ religions (in particular Vedanta, Buddhism, Theosophy and Sufism) or to occult and psychic movements for inspiration and guidance; some turned away from religion altogether, seeking to build morality and a better society based on rationalism (the Ethical movement); while still others focused on social action, both in terms of the advancement of women and the alleviation of poverty, and on political frameworks, leading to the emergence of socialist, nationalist, racist and even anarchist ideologies. Vegetarianism, temperance, anti-vivisection movements, the peace movement, a wide variety of health and healing ideas, food reform and anti-colonialism were also part of this counter-culture. Most of these different streams interacted to some extent with the Bahá’í movement and many individuals in these streams even promoted the Bahá’í message without being members of the Bahá’í community, especially at the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit. Many individuals, particularly from the upper middle

the early years of the british bahá’í community (1898–1911)

Phoebe’s travelling companion and left ‘Akká with her on about 24 December. Minnie’s mother took a different route. She left Paris and went to live in a boarding house in St Hubert, near Nice, in the south of France. Although Harriet was a great lover of the English, she did not like the British weather and complains about it in her letters. Her sojourn in the south of France may be connected with this. She then travelled with May Bolles, leaving Marseilles 9 February 1898, arriving in Port Said on 13 February and in Haifa on 16 February. They left on 25 February. This pilgrimage is described by May in a small booklet, An Early Pilgrimage.

These first pilgrims arrived in ‘Akká in twos and threes over an extended period from December 1898 to March 1899. On account of the dangers surrounding ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at this time, most, including Minnie and Harriet, stayed only a few days and then had to leave again, while the Kheirallas and the Getsingers stayed throughout this whole period. After leaving ‘Akká, the pilgrims returned to Cairo. From here, several of them, probably including Minnie, accompanied Phoebe on a Nile cruise in January. The main party, led by Hearst, then made their way back to Paris in a leisurely manner, setting off from Egypt at the beginning of March and stopping for a time in both Jaffa and Istanbul. Minnie would have been with Phoebe from the start of the return journey. Harriet, travelling with May, left ‘Akká on 25 February and joined up with the party while they were at Jaffa in early March. The party probably spent some days visiting Jerusalem and other sites at this time.

The pilgrims returned to Paris at various times and by various routes, most of them reaching Paris by late April–early May. How long each of the members of the party remained in Paris is not clear. Mrs Hearst herself decided to let go of her Paris apartment in June 1899 and shortly after came briefly to London and then departed to the United States.

The beginnings of the Bahá’í community in London

Minnie and Harriet returned to London and began to talk about the new religion to others. One of the first people whom Thornburgh-Cropper visited on her return was Prof. E.G. Browne, in 1899. He told her that the

Fig. 8: Harriet Thornburgh in 1901, aged 63

Fig. 9: Ethel Rosenberg, in about 1912, aged about 55

‘Bahais he saw in Persia were the most truly religious people he had ever met’.6

The person who is credited with being the next to become a Bahá’í is a 41-year-old single artist, Ethel Rosenberg (for information about her early life, see pp. 75–78; see figs. 9 and 21), although it is possible that Mary Scaramucci became a Bahá’í earlier (see pp. 79–80). Rosenberg’s mother had ‘had a strong premonition of the coming of a Divine Manifestation and had talked to her daughter about it’.7 Ethel painted miniature portraits of many members of London’s high society and Minnie also mixed in these circles. In two of her letters that were written in 1895 to Phoebe Hearst, Minnie Thornburgh-Cropper mentions ‘Miss Rosenberg’ and so it seems likely not only that Minnie knew Ethel before the 1898–9 pilgrimage but that Minnie had introduced her to Phoebe Hearst during Phoebe’s visit to England in 1895.8 Thus Ethel Rosenberg was introduced to the Bahá’í teachings through Minnie Thornburgh-Cropper. She may have also have met Marian Kheiralla in London in late 1898. According to Ethel’s obituary in the Bahá’í World, she became a Bahá’í in the summer of 1899.

6 George, in ‘Two Early Accounts’, p. 99.

7 ibid.

8 I am grateful to Kathryn Hogenson for sending me copies of these letters which are in the Phoebe Hearst Papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. See Hogensen, Lighting, pp. 318–19, n7. Additional evidence of a friendship between Hearst and Rosenberg comes from the fact that Ethel visited Phoebe in California in 1901

Fig. 10: Minnie (Virginia) Thornburgh-Cropper

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Britain

(1911–1913)

Moojan Momen

The visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the single most important event in British Bahá’í history, not only for the exceptional level of publicity that was gained for the religion and the opportunity for thousands of people to have a direct experience of the magnetic personality and spiritual power of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but also because the visit galvanized the British Bahá’ís and united them in working together in an unprecedented level of community activity. Before this visit the Bahá’ís acted independently of each other, either in small groups or as individuals. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit brought them together and created a national Bahá’í community. It may be argued that the second of these two results (the galvanizing and uniting of the Bahá’í community) was, in the long term, the more important of these. The direct impact of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence in Britain necessarily diminished over time as the memory of it faded from the public consciousness and eventually even those most affected by meeting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away. The uniting and galvanizing effect on the British Bahá’í community and the formation of the first national Bahá’í institution, the Bahai Council, that resulted from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visits had an impact that has grown with the passing of the years.

The Universal Races Congress

The London Bahá’í community gave a great deal of thought and undertook much planning for the visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This was the first time that the Bahá’ís had had to come together and plan as a community. At first, it was hoped that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would arrive in time for the Universal Races Congress, 26–9 July 1911, and that this would then be the platform from which other activities could be launched. The community decided to hold a series of events in conjunction with the Congress. There was a Unity Feast given by Alice Buckton and Annet Schepel, which was attended by

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