The March 1, 1918, Watch Tower was a special printing of The Finished Mystery, with a number of illustrations that remind one of the later Golden Age magazine. In the pictures that follow, note the special message printed (over-printed?) on the front cover of the magazine, to get the contents into the hands of those at the front.
George Swetnam (1904-1999) was a writer who led a full and eventful life. His obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (April 7, 1999) outlined how he was an author of a dozen books, mainly on history, and was also a Presbyterian clergyman. He had been a newspaper editor, a member of various historical societies, and for two years of his life, a hobo. His obituary states “he claimed to have ridden more freight trains than any other Ph.D alive.” He is probably best remembered today for co-authoring A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania.
He is of interest here
because he wrote about Charles Taze Russell from time to time.
In 1958 he wrote Where Else but Pittsburgh, and part of
one chapter has six pages on CTR. It is written in popularist style, and while
one can easily nitpick some of the erroneous details, it could be called a
tribute and a sympathetic portrait.
Swetnam became a
columnist and feature writer for the Pittsburgh Press. At least two of his
pieces featured CTR. The first in the Pittsburgh Press Sunday magazine for
October 6, 1963, was about the demolition of the old Bible House as part of the
North Side redevelopment scheme.
The second was an
article, again in the Sunday magazine section of the Pittsburgh Press for
January 25, 1967. This was about the Watch Tower Society’s burial site with a
pyramid monument in the center.
Swetnam listed the
names found on the pyramid, but was obviously struggling. The weathering of the
stone and the way the light hit the monument could make decipherment difficult.
He listed eight names, CTR himself and then seven others.
There were actually
nine names inscribed. He missed out the name John Perry, and some of the names
he recorded had glitches. Grace Mound was actually Grace Mundy, who died in a
fire in 1914. Chester Elledge could only be a drastic misreading of John
Coolidge, which is strange because his grave marker is the only one (other than
CTR’s) to still survive today of those named. Swetnam said that the oldest who
died was Miss Cole, aged 78. Flora Cole actually died aged 70, but it IS hard
to decipher the lettering. But she wasn’t “Miss” she was “Mrs” – her son James
Cole was the inventor of the Dawn-Mobile featured in a Watchtower article for February
15, 2012.
The other thing this
article did was to remind the public that there was a treasure trove of old
publications buried inside the pyramid. They appear to have survived until 1993
when the pyramid was finally broken into and the contents stolen.
Not by any reader here
I would hope.
Further attacks on the pyramid and the ravages of time eventually made it unsafe, and it was finally taken down in 2021.
With grateful thanks to Bernhard who provided the graphics and nearly all the original information for this article on the situation faced by Bible Students in Germany during the First World War.
There are a number of articles and at least one book that deal with how Bible Students coped with conscription during World War 1. Prior to the war, their magazine had given this advice on joining the military. From The Watch Tower for August 1, 1898 (reprints page 2345) CTR wrote:
"If, therefore, we were drafted, and if the government refused to accept
our conscientious scruples against warfare (as they have heretofore done with
"Friends," called Quakers), we should request to be assigned to the
hospital service or to the Commissary department or to some other non-combatant
place of usefulness; and such requests would no doubt be granted. If not, and
we ever got into battle, we might help to terrify the enemy, but need not shoot
anybody."
How could you avoid shooting anyone? Perhaps you could do this by
shooting over their heads? In The Watch Tower for July 15, 1915 (reprints page 5728) CTR expanded on this:
"In Volume Six of SCRIPTURE STUDIES, the friends are instructed to
avoid taking life. If they were ever drafted into the army they should go. If
they could be sent to the Quartermaster's Department to take care of the food,
that would be desirable, or into the hospital work. They should endeavor to get
such positions. They could not be expected to do service in the way of killing.
If they were obliged to go on the firing line, they could shoot over the
enemy's head, if they wished."
The problem for Bible Students dealing with this well-intentioned advice
would only come to the forefront if and when conscription was introduced. So it
came to the fore in Britain in 1916 and in America in 1917 when the draft was
introduced. In Germany however, universal conscription was there from the start
of the war.
There was a German Watch Tower magazine that gave some details of
the situation and also gave the names of many of those involved. The two images
below are from the issues for July and August 1915.
This explains that more than 200 brothers were now in the military and lists many of their names. They are on land, on sea, some in garrisons, some in hospitals. One of them was Max Freschel who we will come back to later.
The numbers increased as the months went by. From the November 1915
German Watch Tower:
Translated it reads:
From our brothers on the field (i.e. the battlefield)
“It is of interest to all brothers and sisters to know that there are
currently about 350 of our brothers in the military. As a result of close
correspondence with many of the loved ones, we receive many evidences of joyful
faith and trust and patient perseverance in many difficulties. Some brothers
wrote us that they feel strong knowing that so much is being thought of in
prayer.”
The article then details the deaths in “the theater of war” of two Bible
Students, Fritz Kownatzki from Zollernhöhe, East Prussia, and Johannes Finger
from Barmen. Fritz was 23 and Johannes was 33.
The article concludes: “Both brothers had written to us with expressions
of love until shortly before their deaths, from which we could see that these
dear ones sought to walk with Jesus ......”
Little is known about how individual Bible Students coped with being in
the military while striving to adhere to their principles. One experience
though is found in the German Watch Tower for June 1915.
In a letter August Kraftzig wrote: “I'm not directly at the front, but
in the baggage (stores?) and consequently by God's grace not directly involved
in the war.”
Years later in 1938 August became Branch overseer in Austria. He died in
the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1940.
As noted above, one name in the lists of Bible Student conscripts
was Max Freschel. Freschel was an Austrian of Jewish parentage. (The area
is now part of Poland but was then Austria). At the outbreak of war his parents
were in Switzerland while he was in the German Bethel. Max chose to stay in
Germany, but this meant that, with universal conscription, he was called up for
the German army.
In 1915 he wrote to CTR at least twice. We don’t know what he wrote but
there is a letter in the German Watch
Tower for October 1915 from Fred Leon
Scheerer from Brooklyn. Friedrich Leonhardt Scheerer was a German Bible
Student responsible for the German foreign work and he translated Max’s
letters so that CTR could read them.
Max Freschel moved to America in 1926 and lived for
the rest of his life in Brooklyn Bethel. He changed his name to Maxwell Friend.
He would become heavily involved in radio dramas for the Society’s Station
WBBR, and was one of the first instructors at Gilead School. When dramas were
introduced to convention programs from the late 1960s onwards, many readers may
remember his voice playing various patriarchs.
His life story appeared in The Watchtower in April
15, 1967, and is well worth reading. However, he does not cover the war years.
All he basically says is that when everything was revived after the war in
1919, he was too.
Two of the stalwarts in the early history of Bible Students in Britain were Tom Hart and Jonathan Ling. Both were based in London and both worked for the railroads.
Both names are
mentioned in the 1973 Yearbook
history of Britain, and a photograph captioned with Hart’s name is in the 2000 Yearbook history. Using this material
along with a reference from Tony Byatt’s book on the history of Bible
Students/Witnesses in London, the following two paragraphs were put together in
the book Separate Identity volume 2.
The combined
information reads:
(quote) Thomas A Hart was born in Calcutta, India,
in 1853. At the time of the 1881 Census he had moved his family from the
Islington address to 5 Lavinia Grove, Middlesex, London. He was “a carman” for
one of the railroads. In another place he called “a railroad shunter.” He and
his wife had three children, two sons and one daughter, all under the age of
four.
Jonathan Ling was born in Blaxhall, Suffolk, early in 1858. The 1891
census has him as a railway guard at Islington, an occupation he still had in
1901. He was married Elizabeth, maiden name unknown, and they have seven
children, ranging in ages from one month to 17 years old. He died June 20,
1922. We lack an exact date for Ling’s conversion, but it appears to be early.
Ling’s daughter Ruth remembered that their meetings were held in the common
room of the King’s Cross hostel, a layover spot for railway workers. (end of
quote)
As a result of contacts via Ancestry, I was eventually able to make contact
with one of Ling’s great grand-daughters, Elizabeth. Although the census return
referred to above gave Jonathan Ling seven children, it appears he eventually
had ten. His wife, Elizabeth, was originally Elizabeth Moody and lived to be
100. The modern Elizabeth’s branch of the family did not remain with the Bible Students.
Great grand daughter Elizabeth (from the line through Jonathan’s son, Lewis Charles Ling) kindly supplied the two photographs below, and gave permission for them to be reproduced.
This leaves one question. The picture of Tom Hart in the 2000 Yearbook (and elsewhere) looks very much
like Jonathan Ling. Putting the younger Tom next to the older Jonathan, this is
the result.
The reader may come to a different conclusion. Perhaps Tom and Jonathan looked quite alike. Or maybe an old file with both their names on it contained a photograph that somewhere back in history has been miscaptioned.
A particularly distressing time in Watch Tower history was after Charles Taze Russell died and Joseph Franklyn Rutherford was elected as president of the Watch Tower Society. It resulted in splits in ecclesias and even families at times, as people had to decide whether to stay with the Watch Tower Society in the path it now trod, or stay with a view of the ministry of CTR that had now come to an end by his death. As detailed in all histories, some chose to cease association with the Watch Tower Society or International Bible Students Association (IBSA), from 1917 onward.
One can imagine the
divided loyalties some individuals faced.
Did they hope for reconciliation between the Society and those who left
it? No doubt. And no doubt some who left, later returned to the IBSA fold as is
documented in the St Paul/New Era
Enterprise newspaper.
An immediate problem facing
those who left association with the IBSA was that people just couldn’t agree
what to do. Fragmentation in various ways continued quite quickly.
The original split came
from supporters of the four directors who were replaced in summer of 1917. This resulted in a group called The Pastoral
Bible Institute (PBI).
As well as gradual adjustments in theology, the Watch Tower Society was soon promoting vigorous evangelism for all. In the mind of one loyal Watch Tower Society adherent, John Adam Bohnet, this was a key difference in the mindset of the two groups. He gave his opinion on the differences in the New Era newspaper for August 21, 1921. His letter was headed “God Blessing the Society” which sort of nailed his colors to the wall:
But the Pastoral Bible Institute was to provide no united alternative to the Watch Tower Society.
Almost immediately
after the PBI was formed in 1917-18, Paul Johnson’s group (later called the Layman’s
Home Missionary Movement) broke away to emphasize his self-view, which others refused
to accept. When he as his movement’s special “messenger” died, his group soon fragmented
further. Then going back to 1918 the Standfast Movement also broke away from
the IBSA. They set up communes, but then fragmented as these failed, leading to
other groups like the Elijah Voice Society. As early as around 1920 the PBI began
questioning the date 1914 for the end of the Gentile Times and started
promoting a date in the 1930s. This led to further splits. There was a group
called the Eagle Society that is mentioned in passing in the St Paul/New Era Enterprise. Then there was The Watchers of the Morning that later
split from the PBI. When in 1929 an attempt was made to bring all seceding
groups up to that time together at a Pittsburgh “reunion” convention, the
introduction to their report mentioned yet other groups that then existed.
So did a “reunion
convention” reunite them? The short answer was no. All that happened was that
yet another group appeared as a result - the Dawn. They wanted to proselytize,
whereas the PBI were not keen - hence attempt to unite the Dawn and PBI foundered.
At one point there were two rival groups hiring space in the old Bible House
Chapel in Allegheny in the late 1930s, and for good measure, they also welcomed
a Universalist Concordant Bible Society speaker (who was himself a former IBSA
adherent). So Concordant was yet another group that seceding Bible Students
gravitated towards. Throw into the mix all those who had sided with Henninges,
McPhail and others from the 1909 “new covenant” controversy, who were still
very much around, and it is even more a tale of division. And as soon as any
group tried to question or update CTR’s theology and chronology there would be
yet more splits. And that is just
America!
When J F Rutherford
presented a resolution for a new name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in 1931 one of the
reasons explained in the full resolution was to clearly show the difference
between those supporting the Watch Tower Society and the groups who had chosen
elsewhere who continued to split and split.
Obviously individuals could do whatever they chose. No doubt some shopped around, and as noted above, no doubt some ultimately returned to the Watchtower Society which, unlike its rivals, would prosper and grow.
Here is a photograph of C T Russell in his study at the Pittsburgh Bible House c. 1906. Notice the picture on the wall in the top left hand corner of this photograph.
If you look very closely, below is the photograph under discussion. It is a picture taken of the workers at the Bible House. I originally had two copies, one marked 1899 and the other 1902. Both came from a relative of W E Van Amburgh. As to which is the correct year, a lot would depend on when the Henninges were in America, between visits to Britain, then Germany, and finally Australia.
Bernhard researched the picture and provided the following information which clearly establishes the correct year as 1902 (or very shortly thereafter):
You see on the group photo brother William Van
Amburgh and left brother George Garman. Both became members of the Bible House
family in autumn 1900. So the photo couldn’t be taken before 1900.
Ernest and Rosa (Rose) Henninges were in England
from April 1900 till November 1901 and than he came back to
Pittsburgh. They stayed there till June 1903; than they went to
Germany. So the photo couldn’t be taken before November 1901.
Otto Koetitz and his wife Jennie succeeded Henninges
in November 1903 in Germany. Otto was a coworker in Bethel from 1896 followed
by his wife in 1900.
Albert Williamson became a member of the Bible House
staff in 1899. Harriet Stark (who married him in 1905) and her mother Britee C.
Stark began to work in the Bethel in 1900.
Laura Whitehouse lived also there since 1900.
Johannes Gotthold Kuehn came also in 1900 to the
Bible House as a part-time worker. His wife Ottilie Friederike and son Alfred
followed in 1902.
So this brings us to the date of 1902, maybe early 1903.
Subsequent to this article being written originally,
Bernhard incorporated this material into his book on the Bible House.
A couple of years ago I received a notification that my inbox was so full it would shortly not accept new mail unless I went through it all and deleted stuff. I did a reverse order shuffle to find emails from way back that never got deleted at the time. One that has now prompted this post was an email from a reliable source in India (!) from 2005, about a mouth watering cache of material that had apparently been recently sold on eBay.
The story as told
to me was as follows:
Apparently the library of Jesse Hemery appeared on the market only a few
months back. If I have the story correctly it was bought as part of a job
lot of second hand clothes etc by a lady who deals in that sort of thing.
It seems Jesse Hemery's trunk was full of most interesting items
including and original Three Worlds, about 115 letters from Russell, mostly
handwritten, 50 or 60 from Rutherford and a few from Knorr, various photos and
numerous other books including Horae Apocalypticae etc. Had a lot of interest,
and it finally went for 34,000 GBP. There cannot be many who would pay that
kind of money. Do you have any ideas? Apparently included were the following:
178
letters from Pastor C T Russell mostly written in
hand from about 1900 to 1916 . Some are typed, paper very aged in some, some
splitting where badly opened. Some deal with Bible Students Conventions in
London, Glasgow, The new London Tabernacle, The London Opera House Photo Drama
show, Travel to London by steam ship. Most are of practical rather than
theological content.
74
letters from J F Rutherford, mainly typed and signed
from a variety of locations. In NY, California, etc. Most again are
practical. Bible Student Conventions at Alexander Palace, Royal
Albert Hall, travel arrangements. Radio broadcasts from London. BBC
monopoly etc.
12
letters from NH Knorr typed but signed
- general admin at Craven Terrace post War.
200
Miscellaneous copies of the Outlook for the London
Company, Judge Rutherford and ‘Empire news’, His Majesties Aliens
Dept letter re deportation of American A Schroeder, letters from various UK
Bible Students groups non WT Society enclosures. Letters from European Offices
of Society 1920 – 1950. Letters from Scottish brethren Minna and John Edgar.
Maybe
60 Photos - various of Russell at conventions
around UK? With Hemery, similar with Rutherford. Photos of
Craven Terrace inside and Elders.
Books,
Booklets various Old Theology, Golden Age, Towers,
Convention reports – random selection about 90 items, paperback Plan of the
Ages – cream cover (signed as gift by Russell).
Audio Angelophone
Hymn record – broken/cracked
Non
Society material - Books by various authors: Elliot (Horae
Apocalypticae), Barton (God’s Covenants), Barbour (Washed in his blood.),
Henry Drummond (Dialogues on Prophecy), Morton Edgar (Prayer and the Bible, etc
Hemery
books! – Revelation Unfolded, The Second coming of
Jesus Christ - 1950’s. He seems to have left the
Society by this time.
(end of list)
The big question is where did it all go? Has any of it surfaced on the
internet in the collecting world since then? Or has someone got this all lined
up as part of their pension fund?
Extra family notes
Jesse Hemery (1864-1963), former vice-president of the IBSA, left
association with the Watchtower Society around 1950. His wife, Mary, died when
they were both in association back in 1937. They had one daughter Bertha who
lived in London Bethel as a young person. She married Frederick William Crane.
They had one son, Jack Hemery Crane, who died at El Alamein.
The Story of the MacMillan family
An earlier post on this
blog (search for article “The Brooklyn Bethel Family in 1910 and 1913”) showed
how many children at one time lived with their parents at the Society’s
headquarters. This was particularly true after the move to Brooklyn in 1909 and
the establishment of Bethel.
One such family was
that of Alexander Hugh MacMillan (1877-1966). He is known today for his 1957 autobiographical
work Faith on the March. However,
although the book covers his conversion and many key historical facts of Watch
Tower history, much of his personal life is omitted. He does mention in his
book (on page 43) that he was married in 1902. For the record, his wife was
Mary Goodwin (1873-?). The marriage took place on October 6, 1902, when he was
26 and she was 29. She supported him as a Bible Student and full-time worker
for the Watch Tower Society.
Picture of Alexander and Mary taken from Who’s Who in the Bible Student Movement.
Alexander and Mary were to have two children, and in
the census returns for the Brooklyn Bethel taken in April 1910, the whole
family are living there. Alexander is listed as Minister, Bible Society. The
head of the whole household is given as Charles Taze Russell. The MacMillan’s
first son was Albert Edmund Cole MacMillan who was born on December 11, 1907.
In the 1910 census he is 2 years old. Their second son, Charles Goodwin
MacMillan (shortened to just Goodwin in the census return) was one month old.
Charles Goodwin was born on March 28, 1910, but died of tubercular meningitis
on February 3, 1912.
The 1910s was a
tumultuous decade for the MacMillans. It included the death of a child, the
death of Charles Taze Russell, the appointment of a new president, Joseph
Franklyn Rutherford, and then the arrest of key officals on charges of sedition
in 1918. Alexander was one of those convicted and sentenced to twenty years
imprisonment. The men were freed in 1919 and all charges then dropped.
By the 1920 census Alexander,
Mary and Albert Edmund were back in the Brooklyn Bethel with J F Rutherford as
the head of the household. Here is an extract from the census return. Albert
Edmund was now 12. Alexander is listed as Minister, Religious Pub(lishing)
House.
Travelling forward to the 1940 census, Albert Edmund is no longer with them (at some point he married Dorothy, born 1908, died 1969) and Alexander and Mary now live in West Virginia. Alexander’s occupation is now Regional Director for the Watch Tower Society.
According to his life
story in The Watchtower for 1966 Alexander went back to live in Bethel in 1948.
It may be that Mary had died. He was to work extensively at the Society’s radio
station WBBR and then write his famous book.
When he died, the
newspapers gave Albert Edmund as his main surviving relative.
Albert Edmund did not stay with the religion of his parents. He died in 1971 and was buried next to his wife in the Long Island National Cemetery.
Graveyard memorials are an interesting adjunct to genealogy and history. They often tell us about attitudes towards death and also fame, going right back to the pyramids of Egypt. It is notable in the 19th century with the attempts of Victorians (in the UK at least) to outdo their dead rivals in the cemetery with spectacle. It’s been said that the attitude in 19th century Britain was – if you can’t take it with you, you can at least show the rabble you once had it.
With that in mind, it
is interesting to note the grave markers of the first six presidents of the
Watch Tower Society.
William Henry Conley
Conley was a wealthy
industrialist who became first Watch Tower president in 1881. By 1884 he had
left regular association with Charles Taze Russell to go on a different
religious journey. But his memorial is typical of wealthy men who made their
name.
Photograph by the author
In fairness to Conley,
his actual grave marker was quite standard, alongside almost identical ones for
his wife and adopted daughter. But the family memorial for his name is quite
striking, even today.
Charles Taze Russell
CTR was the first
president of the incorporated Society in 1884, and founder of the magazine now
known as The Watchtower (originally Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s
Presence). He gave instructions for a simple funeral at the Society’s own
plot in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, Pittsburgh. His first marker pictured
in the 1919 convention report was very simple, but something more elaborate was
installed in 1920. Even so, it was a fairly modest affair, when compared with
other markers of the time, including in the same series of cemeteries.
Photograph by the author
It should be noted that
the pyramid installed near the grave marker, was not for CTR but for the whole
Bethel family along with colporteurs of the day. Like a war memorial it was
originally intended to commemorate the names of 196 people. In practice only
nine names were ever engraved on it before the idea was abandoned. The
structure was taken down in 2021.
Joseph Franklyn Rutherford
The second president of
the incorporated Society was Joseph Franklyn Rutherford. Originally a grave
space was reserved for him on the same site as CTR. But the headquarters were
now in New York and a new graveyard was established on Staten Island. The
Society bought land in 1922 and established both a farm and a radio station
there. The radio station had the call letters WBBR and opened for transmission
in 1924. Adjoining this property was a famous landmark, the Woodrow Road
Methodist Church, with a number of graveyards surrounding it. The Society was
to have its own section here. It is not known when this began, but the last
interment of a Bethel worker at the old cemetery in Pittsburgh was that of
Charles Buehler in 1925.
When JFR died he was
buried at Staten Island.
Below is a snapshot
from Google Earth taken from Woodrow Road showing part of the cemetery.
The Woodrow Road
Methodist Church is on the right. On the left is a fence separating a housing
development, which was where the Woodrow Road entrance to the Society’s
property used to be. The radio masts for WBBR were behind the Methodist church
and their own graveyard adjoined the WBBR property. The graveyard is noted for
the policy of having no grave markers at all. This was used for Bethel workers
until the end of the 1960s, even though they sold off the radio station in
1957. The last recorded interment was in December 1968. (See The Watchtower magazine for February 15,
1969, page 125.) So J F Rutherford has no grave marker at all. He is buried in
this private cemetery area with five others who went to prison with him in 1918.
Nathan Knorr, Fred Franz and Milton Henschel
In the 1970s a new cemetery was established at Watchtower Farms in Walkill, Ulster County,
NY. It is also a private cemetery but this time on private land, and now the
decision was taken to have simple grave markers flat on the ground.
Here are the markers
for the next Watchtower Society presidents, Nathan Knorr, Fred Franz, and
Milton Henschel.
Nathan
Knorr and Fred Franz
Milton
Henschel
It is an interesting progression from the memorial for William Henry Conley.
This blog’s function is to research history from the era of CTR. However, from time to time, material of a more recent nature has been offered. Some photographs from private sources came to light on the death of the original owners, and the current owner gave me permission to publish them several years ago on a now defunct blog. To my knowledge, all the people in the photographs have now passed away, so the material is being reproduced here.
The photograph below is the earliest and advertises the talk Government
and Peace. This was relayed by wire from America to Britain in 1939 and the
venue here was Bristol.
The next two photographs are convention pictures that date from 1946.
The next photograph is from the same era as the convention photos.
The Consolation magazine changed to Awake in 1946 and the Watchtower magazine
changed from large format to its present page size in 1950, so the photo fits
between those years.
And now for some pictures of people. The description will be under the
photographs.
The group photograph is Molly, Margaret and Glen Howe. Howe became a
very famous legal advocate for the witnesses in Canada. He married Margaret
from Portsmouth where this photograph was taken. I personally visited Molly on
several occasions. Molly and Margaret first contacted the current owner of the
pictures in 1950 with the witnesses’ message. As one might say, the rest is
history.
This is a photograph from the 1950s of Pryce Hughes.
Hughes became Branch Servant in Britain in 1942. The previous Branch
Servant, Bert Schroeder from America was deported - with the witnesses’ view of
war and with a name like Schroeder it was perhaps inevitable at that time.
Pryce Hughes replaced him, although he was in jail as a conscientious objector
at the time. He remained Branch Servant until the 1960s, when as an older man
he became Bethel Home Servant. You nearly always found him in the garden when
visiting the British headquarters that had moved to Mill Hill, London, in the
late 1950s. I met him on a number of occasions.
This is a photograph of Phil Rees.
Phil Rees was very well known in Britain for decades. In Australia
during the last war he was involved in the Society’s activities when they were
under ban. I believe he married the branch servant’s daughter, and not long
after the war came to Britain where he worked as Factory Servant at the
headquarters in Craven Terrace and then Mill Hill for many years. One of my claims
to notoriety was when Phil Rees actually mentioned me by name in a District
Convention talk in 1977. People turned to those sitting next to them and said
“Who...?”
This photograph dates from a British convention in 1958, and will have been taken in the convention office. On the left standing, and holding the American 1958 convention report, is Eric Courtney. Next to him, seated and poring over a typewriter, is Tony Byatt. At the back of the picture is Jim Robbins.
Jim Robbins and his wife stayed at our home for a week in the 1950s. Eric Courtney was a well known district servant in his day covering the 40s, 50s and into the 60s. I conducted several special schools with him in the 1970s, and ultimately attended his funeral.
As a young teenager, Tony Byatt went around the second-hand bookstalls in London in the early days of the Second World War with Bert Schroeder, the Branch Servant. As noted above Schroeder was deported in 1942. He was later involved in the setting up of the Gilead Missionary School in America. Decades later in the 1980s I was there when Bert and Tony met up again and reminisced at length. I used Tony Byatt’s personal library on a number of occasions for various writing projects and when he died I was left some books in his will.
So although the photographs are not mine, I do have a personal interest in several of them. With thanks to the present owner for making them available.
