For fuller details of her devoted services to the Cause it is necessary to refer to “The Chosen Highway” and “The Bahá’í World”, Vol. VIII, pp. 651–6. Born in Ireland of a fearless Protestant mother and a strong Roman Catholic father, she understood from an early age the tragedy of religious intolerance which led her to search for Truth until she found the Bahá’í Revelation. She was held in high esteem in the London society of the late “nineties” but she herself was always looking for the Promised One. She was a great friend and admirer of Basil Wilberforce, Archdeacon of Westminster. Not only did she place her home in Cadogan Gardens at the disposal of the Master during His London visits but she accompanied Him to Paris. While He was in America she went to Mount Pelerin, in Switzerland, to edit the rough notes of “Paris Talks”, had them sent to Him for correction and had the book published in time for His second visit when He signed and gave away many copies. She accompanied Shoghi Effendi when he returned to Haifa after the passing of the Master and wrote the letter which was later published as “The Passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”. She was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly for eight of its first eleven years. She passed away on the last day of 1939 and a remarkably fine obituary in the magazine “The World’s Children” of March 1940 was headed “Lady Blomfield—Apostle of World Unity”.
GEORGE TOWNSHEND, Hand of the Cause of God
First corresponded with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about 1918. The Master wrote to him “It is my hope that thy church will come under the heavenly Jerusalem”. For very many years he tried to bring to the clergy of the Church of Ireland and particularly the senior ones, the realisation of Bahá’u’lláh as Christ returned in the Glory of the Father. In spite of his important books, “The Heart of the Gospel” and “The Promise of All Ages”, no one in the church responded and in 1947 the Guardian called upon him to resign from the church. He complied immediately and moved with his wife and two children to a small bungalow in Dundrum near Dublin. He was one of the founder members of the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Dublin and in 1951 was elevated to the rank of Hand of the Cause. For many years he gave distinguished services to the Guardian, not least of which was the writing of the introduction to “God Passes By” and his presentation on behalf of the Guardian of his paper “Bahá’u’lláh’s Ground Plan for World Fellowship” to the inaugural meeting of the World Congress of Faiths in 1936. The pamphlet he wrote to all Christians under the title “The Old Churches and the New World Faith” was sent out to 10,000 so-called “responsible people” in the British Isles on the occasion of his resignation from the church, and his last book “Christ and Bahá’u’lláh” was described by the Guardian as “his crowning achievement”. He participated in the Inter-Continental Conference, Stockholm, Sweden in July 1953 and passed away in March 1957 at the age of 81. (“Bahá’í World”, Vol. XIII, p. 841.)
MRS. ISOBEL SLADE
It has not been possible to trace exactly when Mrs. Slade became a Bahá’í but she did tell the story of how she heard of the Faith from a visiting American believer and wished to go on pilgrimage to see the Master. Before her plans were made she heard of His passing and she went in the early 1920s. In the year 1926 there is a record of her being a “substitute” member of the National Assembly elected to “represent” the London community. From the following year the delegates elected the National Assembly from the national electorate and Mrs. Slade served as a member for fourteen of the following nineteen years. She was, in different years, Chairman, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary. She was a “last ditch” pioneer to Edinburgh to form the first Assembly there in 1948. To the end of her long life she would delight her visitors with fascinating stories of her experiences in the early days of the Faith in the British Isles and she passed away in September 1972 at the age of 98. The Universal House of Justice cabled: “PASSING ISOBEL SLADE SEVERS ONE FEW REMAINING LINKS EARLY CAUSE BRITISH ISLES DEPRIVES COMMUNITY OUTSTANDING BELIEVER STOP HER UNFLAGGING SUPPORT CAUSE GOD MORE THAN HALF CENTURY COMPRISING MEMBERSHIP NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY PIONEER VISITING TEACHER SIX YEAR PLAN CONSTANT DEVOTION DUTY HIGH MORAL STATURE RENDER HER SHINING EXAMPLE FUTURE GENERATIONS STOP EXPRESS RELATIVES FRIENDS LOVING SYMPATHY ASSURE PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD AMPLE REWARD PROGRESS SOUL ABHÁ KINGDOM.”