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HAROLD SHEPHERD
1909—1980
Harold Shepherd passed to the Abhá Kingdom on 13 November 1980 at his home in the Orkney Islands. The National Spiritual Assembly cabled the World Centre:
GRIEVED NEWS PASSING LAST NIGHT STALWART SERVANT BAHAULLAH HAROLD SHEPHERD. HIS STEADFASTNESS UNWAVERING LOYALTY LONGSTANDING PIONEER RECORD LABOURS ESTABLISHMENT CAUSE GOD SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS MADE HIM VITAL INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT FAITH ISLANDS NORTH SEA EARNED HIM GRATITUDE BRITISH BAHAI COMMUNITY. FAITHFULLY HE REMAINED AT HIS IMPORTANT PIONEER OUTPOST ORKNEYS UNTIL HE HASTENED ABHA KINGDOM. BESEECH PRAYERS PROGRESS HIS VALIANT SOUL.
Harold became a Bahá’í in October 1956. At the National Teaching Conference in Blackpool in January 1959 he and his family volunteered to pioneer to Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, the most northerly British goal town of the beloved Guardian’s Ten Year Crusade. Harold, his wife and their two children, aged nine and eleven, spent the Easter holiday that year on a campsite on the outskirts of the town, waking up on the first morning to find the tent surrounded by snow.
THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
Harold Shepherd
All doors seemed to be closed as neither accommodation nor employment could be found. They returned to Manchester but returned to Inverness in July intending to devote their summer holiday to attempting to get settled. Their faith was rewarded: within a week they had acquired a house that was to become a real Bahá’í home for countless pioneers, travelling teachers and friends, and would later become the ‘gateway to the islands’, as most of the Bahá’ís who travelled to the Western Isles, Orkneys and Shetlands passed through Inverness. It was Virtually impossible for Harold, already in his fifties, to find work so he took on the task of running
the home while his wife, Betty, worked full
time as a teacher. Thus began twenty—two years of continuous, active service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
When Harold was serving on the Scottish Teaching Committee a project was developed under which Bahá’ís of independent means spent three-month periods in Orkney. Harold purchased ‘Little Gorse Cottage’ to further that project and that house, too, became a home for many pioneers and travelling teachers.
[Page 741]
IN MEMORIAM
The fruit of their pioneering was the establishment of a strong Local Spiritual Assembly in Inverness. This accomplished, Betty and Harold, in September 1972, pioneered to Uganda where Betty could bring her professional knowledge and experience to the running of Claire Gung’s kindergarten. Harold had already suffered a heart attack before leaving for Africa but this did not'prevent him from fulfilling his pledge. He was soon appointed to the committee charged with the care of Bahá’í properties which included two Bahá’í schools and three teaching institutes in different districts, as well as the House of Worship and Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds on Kikaaya Hill in Kampala. He became the vital force, together with Stuart Rhodes from the United States, in renovating the House of Worship. On an occasion when thieves broke into Claire Gung’s kindergartenl Harold was wounded in his efforts to protect Miss Gung. Only a providential fall over a roll of carpet protected him from fatal injury. as the knife, or panga, had been aimed at his head.
In February 1976 Harold’s health deteriorated and he returned to Inverness alone, as Betty could not at that time leave ‘Auntie’ Claire to cope unaided at the kindergarten. They had intended to meet again at the Nairobi Conference in October. This separation was possibly Harold’s greatest sacrifice for he had always been part of a family team. He did not return to Africa. In May of that year he had another heart attack which brought Betty back to Scotland. Later in 1976, when he recovered, they pioneered to the Orkney Islands, 3 post they had offered to fill in 1972 as a possible alternative to Uganda. Harold became the chairman of the Orkney Local Spiritual Assembly, an institution for whose establishment he had worked so hard in earlier years. Even as his health deteriorated Harold offered unwavering support to Betty in her service as a member of the Auxiliary Board for Propagation in Scotland.
Harold Shepherd’s life was dedicated entirely to serving Bahá’u’lláh. Though not young when he embraced the Cause, he learned by heart numerous Tablets and prayers; they were his spiritual food. He was the embodiment of worship and of service. The harvest of
' See p. 209.
741
his labours is evident in the development of the Faith throughout the north of Scotland and the Scottish Islands, and he had his own special part to play in service to the Faith in Uganda. On 17 November 1980 the Universal House of Justice cabled:
PASSING DEVOTED SERVANT BAHAULLAH HAROLD SHEPHERD DEPRIVES BRITISH COMMUNITY OUTSTANDING VETERAN BELIEVER WHOSE DEDICATED SERVICES ASSOCIATED HISTORIC EPISODES AFRICA PROJECT TEN YEAR CRUSADE FIRM ESTABLISHMENT FAITH SCOTLAND ORKNEYS. COMMUNITY COMPENSATED HIS UNFLAGGING DEDICATION BRILLIANT EXAMPLE RISING GENERATION. EXTEND LOVlNG SYMPATHY MEMBERS FAMILY ASSURE PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD PROGRESS HIS SOUL.
(Adapted from a memoir in Bahá’í Monthly News Service, United Kingdom, February 1981)
