 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
JANE VILLIERS—STUART
1919—1990
Jane Villiers-Stuart was born into the Fowler family in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, on 29 September 1919. The Fowlers were a well established family in the Protestant Anglo-Irish tradition, Which tended to be land—owning, English—educated, and staunchly loyal to Monarch, Empire and Church. Life was privileged, conformist and imbued with a sense of upper-class exclusiveness. Such was the ambience in which J ane was brought
up.
,,fi__—____~—..——_1
[Page 982]
982
However, Jane was 20 years younger than her nearest brother, her father died when she was eight, and her mother, having witnessed the carnage of the first World War, sanctioned a somewhat unusual upbringing. She was tutored at home to the age of 14. She was encouraged to roam and explore and run free in the unspoiled countryside of County Meath. She became an experienced horsewoman. Then her further education took place in a boarding school in the south of England. It all allowed for the flowering of a personality sensitive, inquiring, rebellious in defence of her own and others’ freedom, full of imagination, and wonderfully uncircumscribed by the inhibitions developed by more formal upbringing.
In 1940, family reasons bound up with the second World War caused her mother to leave the neutral Irish Republic and settle in Northern Ireland. Jane, who had lived a life of leisure until this time, was drawn into the war effort. She worked as an orderly in a hospital in London. When she moved to the north of Ireland, she ran a mobile canteen for the troops. It was here that she met Michael Villiers-Stuart. He was then in the Royal Navy, but had previously moved from the south to the north of Ireland to help develop the family nicotine insecticide business.
Jane and Michael were married in 1943. Sally was born in 1945, Virginia in 1947, Garry in 1949, and Katherine in 1951. They set up home in a house called Loughside on the shores of Belfast Lough. It was their home for the next 38 years.
Jane first read about the Bahá’í Faith in 1948, in an article in a local paper which sympathetically reviewed The Promise of All Ages, by George Townshend. Two years later, on a journey to London on the occasion of her great aunt’s 80th birthday, she shared a cabin with Ursula Newman, who was then a pioneer in Belfast and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles. For both the meeting was significant, and it marked a new phase in J ane’s spiritual journey.
THE Bahá’í WORLD
Three years later, having explored the teachings of the Faith with the aid of George Townshend, Adib Taherzadeh, and Lady Homell, she declared on the day of the Feast of Questions. She said that she knew she had to make a decision, and had gone to the local church to pray for the right answer. As she prayed she felt as if she were being lifted up to heaven. This experience, coupled with her natural sympathy with Bahá’í principles, confirmed to her the truth of Bahá’u’lláh and His Revelation.
The rest of her life became an expression of her commitment to the truth of His Revelation. Along with Lady Homell and Lizbeth Greaves, she became a most potent invigorator of the Irish Bahá’í community. She involved herself fully in the domestic nittygritty of building this still fragile community. Any soul who showed the slightest interest in the Faith would receive her total and loving attention. Nothing would be too much trouble if it helped to confirm that interest.
Jane discovered that she had a great skill for bringing people together. She began to use this skill in making connections between the many different social classes, interest groups and nationalities that inhabited her social world. Her home became almost the 20th century equivalent of an 18th century salon. The sewing lady would have tea with the Wing Commander, the poet would discuss Vietnam with an aristocratic Persian lady, the business consultant joke with an African student, the wild and uncultured “new estate” boys share cake With respectable aging lady inquirers.
The house, blessed by the Grace of Bahá’u’lláh and energised by Jane’s generous hospitality, hosted innumerable morning devotions, tea and lunch parties, musical evenings, buffet suppers, and firesides. Every moment of her life, and all events organised in it were seen as occasions when the Bahá’í Revelation and its implications could be discussed and explored. Loughside became an unofficial hotel for travelling teachers going to Northern Ireland. Its Visitors’ book
[Page 983]
IN MEMORIAM 983
read like an unofficial “Who’s Who” of the Bahá’í world. Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih @51an George Townshend, Hasan Balyfizi, Iarézu’llah Samandari, Hermann Grossmann, Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir, and others, were Visitors at various times. The number of grace-filled moments during these times cannot be computed.
Jane’s official Bahá’í life was also ever full. For example, she set up and supported countless firesides, both in the Province and in the Irish Republic. She helped to organise the first northern Irish summer school. She helped to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly in the area in which she lived (the fourth in Northern Ireland). For many years, almost until her death, she was elected as a Northern Ireland delegate to the National Bahá’í Convention of the United Kingdom. She became the official Travel Teacher Coordinator for the Province. Rich were the many itineraries she organised, and brilliantly successful she was in gaining media coverage for both these travelling teachers in particular and the Bahá’í community in general.
When “The Troubles” (that is, Violent inter—religious conflict between the Catholic and Protestant communities) flared up again in Northern Ireland in the 19705, Jane dedicated more of her time to help the cause of peace. Her contribution was particularly effective in the area of hosting events in the community and in her house to which both Catholics and Protestants would come. It was not unknown for the “wild boys” as she affectionately called them, from both sides of the community divide, to serve tea to each other during a fireside, and to wait to ambush each other after it was over.
As a result of “The Troubles”, one of her ears was hijacked and used as a car bemb, and another was turned on its side and used as a road barricade! Despite all these complications, Jane remained cheerful and full of laughter. She seemed able to absorb the pressure and tensions of such an environment and fit it into her hectic domestic life,
Jane Villiers-Stuart
although she later admitted that she found all these demands difficult to cope with at times. She became a much loved and respected local figure.
J ane served for many years on a committee that attempted to proclaim the Faith to important public figures. Her wide family connections enabled her to do this in a successful manner. In the early 19703, through her efforts and contacts, she enabled the Tablets of Baha’u’llah written to the Kings of Europe to be unofficially presented to Queen Elizabeth 11. She also arranged for the formal presentation of the same book to Eamon de Valera, the President of Ireland. In the early 19803, she organised a very successful meeting in the House of Lords as a way of drawing attention both to the Bahá’í Faith and to the plight of the Bahá’ís in him.
During the last years of her life she travelled to India to teach the Faith, and also to represent Northern Ireland at the 1978 Asian women’s conference in New Delhi. Later, she was invited to represent Northern Ireland at an international women’s peace conference in Dallas, Texas, USA. During
[Page 984]
984
the last months of her life, while battling against a creeping cancer, she involved herself in the organisation of a cross-border Irish women’s peace conference. Her room in the Hospice where she stayed for some weeks became a focus for Visitors near and far, and each found in her a rich source of inspiration. For the last week of her life she was cared for by her family in the prayerfilled atmosphere of her home.
When Jane passed away in August 1990, her funeral became a wonderful proclamation. The local people in the small town Where she lived were amazed at the number and diversity of people Who came to pay their last respects.
Jane’s life was filled with love and laughter and happiness and a passionate sense of justice, all of which spilled over into and touched the lives of the many souls Who were lucky enough to come into contact With her. There can be no more fitting epitaph to her life than the message sent by the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom on 24 August 1990, on the occasion of her passing, Which read:
Grieve passing stalwart promoter Faith dearly loved Jane Villiers—Stuart. Her exemplary life of service to the Cause and fellow human beings, her loving nature and passionate love for Baha’u’llah, her tireless unceasing efforts teaching proclamation are fondly remembered. The shining record services Cause she loved so clearly served so nobly are indelibly recorded history Faith British Isles, and Will serve as befitting example for promoters Cause Bahá’u’lláh to emulate in those Islands. Praying Holy Shrines progress her radiant soul. Kindly convey loving sympathy her beloved family.
GARRY VILLIERS-STUART
THE Bahá’í WORLD
