Many readers of this blog will be collectors of Watch Tower related postcards, official IBSA issues, the Photodrama cards, the Lardent cards and the like. While the picture side is the obvious attraction, sometimes the message side gives us historical information that we would not have had preserved otherwise. This article is about one such example.
In 1986 the Awake magazine had an article about the Channel Islands, British
owned but quite near the coast of France. It stated (Awake April 22, 1986, page 19):
“Seeds of Bible truth
were sown here back in 1925 when Zephaniah and Ethel Widdell arrived from
England with their bicycles to organize a regular program of Bible studies. As
a direct result of their work, congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses were soon formed
in both Jersey and Guernsey.”
A postcard message now takes that
history back a further fourteen years to 1911.
But first, where did the 1925 account
come from? One must remember that there was never any official attempt to
document the growth of interest in places like the Channel Islands at the time.
We have to rely on people looking back long after the event. In 1970 the
Society sent a lengthy letter to all old-timers asking for their reminiscences.
The letters sent by return will have numbered into their hundreds, possibly
thousands, around the world, and formed the basis for the various histories
that subsequently appeared in the Yearbooks. These covered not just countries
like the United States and Britain, but everywhere. This testimony was supported
by documented proof in some cases. For example, the son of one of the editors
of the St Paul/New Era Enterprise was
moved to send his files to the Society. However, in other cases it was simply
the anecdotal memories of older people looking back. The account in the 1986 Awake may date from that 1970
initiative. No-one alive in 1970 had any memory of events before 1925 for the
Channel Islands. However, the 1925 account of the Widdells arriving to organise
a “regular program of Bible studies”
might suggest some prior interest.
That is why the ‘find’ of a post card
from 1911 is so useful. It is reproduced in full below. Grateful thanks are due
to Franco, who owned the original and made it available.
The picture is simply a Guernsey
location. The sender was A W Bowland of 4 Union Street, St Peter’s Port,
Guernsey, and the date of the message was 9/11/11, which (the way the British
write dates) would be November 9th, 1911. The recipient was A
Weber, Tour de Garde, Convers [Canton], Berne, Suisse.
The message transcribed, reads:
Dear Brother, Thanks
for card. We have received parcels safely today. We also thank you very much
for Millenial Cards. Glad to say we are still selling a good number of volumes
here. With much love in the Lord. Yours in his service, A W Bowland.
The card was sent to a very well known
figure, Adolphe Weber (1863-1948). Weber became a Bible Student in America and
worked as a gardener for CTR for a short while in the 1890s. He went back to
Europe and was involved in the German language Watch Tower. His story can be found in a number of Yearbook histories for various European
countries and also in the Proclaimers
book on page 409 with his photograph.
The writer was A W Bowland, who wrote
to Weber in English. I could only find one male named Bowland (the variant
Boland) in Guernsey in the 1911 census, which was taken in April 1911, living
in a street quite near Union Street in St Peter Port, from whence the postcard
was later sent that year. This Bowland/Boland was a labourer working in the
stone industry, aged 31, with a wife and two children. However, the initials
don’t match. So the writer of the card could have traveled to Guernsey after
the census was taken, perhaps to specifically do colporteur work.
If that was the case, there was a
British Bible Student Alfred Whittome Bowland, who was born in 1884 in
Cambridgeshire. In the April 1911 census he is lodging with a family named
Beavor in Middlesex, one of whom, Ernie Beavor, would have a long history with
the Watch Tower Society. Alfred lists his occupation in 1911 as ‘Colporteur
Bible and Tract.’ Later in 1916, while living at St Austell, Cornwall, he was a
conscientious objector, listing himself as colporteur for a ‘Bible Tract
Society’ and adding that he was an IBSA member. In 1938 he wrote a letter to The Watchtower (June 1st
issue) headed LORD IS USING PHONOGRAPH TO HIS PRAISE where he wrote “it has
been a happy privilege to be twenty-seven years in the full-time service” –
which would go back to 1911. He was currently working in the “special business
house service.” The next year, in the UK 1939 census register, A W Bowland and
wife Gertrude are listed as evangelists, but now in Northumberland. This same A
W Bowland died in Swindon at the end of 1967 or early 1968 (death registered in
the first quarter of 1968).
On a personal note, I knew Ernie Beavor
in the early 1970s when he stayed at my parents’ home, and also when A W
Bowland died in Swindon I was “pioneering” in the next congregation.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t researching this particular article at the time…
So what does the postcard show? It
takes the work in the Channel Islands back another fourteen years from the time
the Widdells worked the area on bicycle. The Bible Students’ evangelising work
was happening there way back in 1911. Since the card states: “we are still selling a good number of volumes
here” perhaps even earlier. It may be that several Cornish colporteurs could
have had ‘working’ holidays in the Channel Islands.
This all illustrates that even the
smallest piece of ephemera is well worth checking in the search for a more
complete picture.
With grateful thanks to Franco who
supplied the postcard, Bernhard who provided the lead for Alfred W Bowland, and
Gary who provided further research on World War 1 conscientious objectors.
Truly a team effort.
Excellent piece of research. It's pieces of sometimes a personal nature that rounds out the big picture. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteRaymond S.
The history of JW in individuals began to be described only in YearBook from Roky 1972: Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Taiwan, Zambia - (1972 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses). (From Benek)
ReplyDeleteOnce in 1883, The Channel Islands appears in WT, but without connection with the Society. (From Benek)
ReplyDeleteSometimes the Society's publications do not include certain ancient historical facts and have to look for them in "secular texts" or in private memoirs, as described in the blog. However, sometimes these facts are hidden in the content written by Society. For example, the following text indicated to me that Watch Tower in Polish began to appear in 1915:
ReplyDelete*** yb94 p. 176 Poland ***
And by 1915, The Watch Tower was being printed regularly in Polish each month.
However, in a very old Polish brochure from 1908 I saw an advertisement for a Polish Watch Tower which surprised me very much. Only then did I understand the meaning of the words "printed regularly" since 1915. Previously, this Watch Tower had been out irregularly, probably since 1908. I have not been able to obtain such old copies, but I have had these since 1915. (From Benek)