In Memoriam 1992-1997/Vera and John Long

VERA AND JOHN LONG

1907—1992/1906—1993

ohn Victor Abel Long began his working

life in 1922 as a secretary in the export department of Sexton, Son and Everard—a Norwich shoe manufacturing firm. There he met Vera Brewster, whom he married in 1931 in St. Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich.

It is difficult to write about John or Vera singularly. Married for sixty—one years, John and Vera were considered inseparable by all who knew them and who knew how much they gave to the Faith. Though John’s services were of a higher profile and more widely recognized, Vera was much more than his constant supporter and a person

always in his shadow. She made her own distinctive contribution to the development of the Bahá’í community.

During their five years together in Norwich, John was active in local politics, eventually becoming a city councillor. In 1936 he obtained a post at the City of Leicester Colleges of Art and Technology, and at the outbreak of war he was promoted to the headship of the School of Boot and Shoe Manufacture. Having been put in charge of all Royal Air Force ab initio radio training and all army shoe repairing training, he was also responsible for feeding the service trainees under the colleges’ care from 6 AM to 10 PM.

The outbreak of World War II brought greater responsibilities. All unemployed housewives were called up for war work. Vera went to Harrisons, the Leicester seed merchants, until she was required to return to Norwich to nurse her ailing mother. She arrived back in Norwich just in time for the German “Baedeker” air raid; she never forgot the appalling scenes she saw when dawn broke. Returning to Leicester she worked in the telegraph office at Bishop’s Street Post Office until shortly after compulsory service ceased.

John had become a member of the executive of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions, which he served for sixteen years (one year as national president). He was also on the executive of the National Union of Teachers for thirteen years and the Chair of more than one ofits committees. Twice during these years John and Vera were invited to attend garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

At the height of his professional career John became president of the British Boot and Shoe Institution. From this post he was instrumental in establishing three—year apprenticeships in the industry, with, for the first time, verifiable national training

[Page 55]IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 35

folm Long

standards. This reform was so successful that the government used it as a model for new systems of apprenticeships in other industries.

The competence of his qualified pupils, plus his publications in the field, ensured that John’s reputation as a teacher and a reformer of the industry was widely broadcast. One of his former Leicester students told the story ofhow he migrated to South Africa. There he met an Indian shoe manufacturer who had never been out of the country. When the newcomer said that he had qualified in Leicester, the Indian said, “Then you must know John Long.”

Perhaps the greatest single illustration ofJohn’s status in the industry came in 1964 when the College ofAdvanced Education in Mexico City, having decided to set up a department of boot and shoe manufacture, wrote to the British government requesting that John Long be sent to advise them. John was delighted to accept the offer and stayed a month in Mexico.

Vera Lang

In the early 1950s John was a key member of several survey teams that toured European countries to advise and assist in the reconstruction of their national footwear industries. One of his professional colleagues on these tours was Mrs. Betty Reed. She introduced him to the Bahá’í Faith, and by 1955 John and Vera were deeply interested. Vera became a Bahá’í early in 1956, and John joined some months later. Both were founding members of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Leicester.

Vera had held Bahá’í meetings in her home before she had become a Bahá’í. After her declaration she insisted that they move to a larger home. For seven years they lived at 126 New Walk, their home becoming the virtual Bahá’í Center of Leicester. Meetings, often attended by over a hundred, were held there, and individuals arrived at all hours to inquire about the Faith. This put a heavy load on Vera, but she was delighted to be able to serve the Faith she

loved so much.

[Page 56]56 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

The Longs provided shelter for the more vulnerable members of society, such as a West Indian gentleman who had been refused lodging elsewhere on account of his color. John and Vera also acted as guardians to a small number of young girls from distinguished Bahá’í families who were studying in England away from their parents.

They both made their first pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the spring of1957 as guests of Shoghi Effendi. In that year John was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles, an institution he served continuously for the next twenty—three years. He held the Office of treasurer for four years and chairman for seventeen. Indeed, for a time he served in both capacities simultaneously, a unique distinction in the Assembly’s history.

Under John’s management the international dimension of the treasury grew so quickly that it was made a department in its own right. Vera did most of the day-to-day work of the treasury, making out receipts and keeping up the books and correspondence. They continued this work until 1990, making thirty-three years of service that kept Vera in regular communication with Bahá’ís worldwide.

Vera was appointed to regional and national Bahá’í committees and is particularly remembered as being secretary of the National Bahá’í Summer School at Harlech for nine years. During the schools she counseled many young Bahá’ís while on long walks along the beach, occasions that she remembered fondly.

In December 1964 John and Vera moved to Oakham, the market town of Rutland. It was then a virgin territory for the Faith, and they settled there as pioneers. They also brought with them the Bahá’í Publishing Trust to which John had been appointed chairman earlier that year. He occupied

that post for the next nineteen years, with Vera handling most of the paperworkprocessing incoming orders, corresponding with customers, and making friends all over the world. Her work was undoubtedly the reason why the Trust’s sales consistently increased by fifty percent each year.

Between 1960 and 1985 Vera made many trips around the British Isles and beyond, visiting and assisting Bahá’í communities in such places as Norway, the Lofoten Islands, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, and Orkney. From 1985 onward failing health made such long—distance travel too strenuous for her, but as late as 1991 she traveled to Wales and to the northernmost tip of Scotland to visit isolated and housebound Bahá’ís. In 1988 John and Vera were able to make one last pilgrimage together to the Bahá’í World Centre.

When he retired from full—time professional life in 1971, John had risen to the position of dean of four faculties at Leicester Polytechnic, where he had been a staff member for thirty—five years. He continued to serve on several regional and national education committees, work that frequently brought him into contact with prominent figures. Until his final weeks John regularly served on interview panels for Voluntary Service Overseas, an international development charity.

When his services as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly came to an end in 1982,]ohn found himselfinformally promoted to the rank of elder statesman of the British Bahá’í community. He took the opportunity of his new freedom to travel more with Vera.

Vera loved her Faith and her husband so dearly that when John was appointed one of the nineteen representatives of the Bahá’í community of the United Kingdom to attend the centenary commemoration of

[Page 57]IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 57

Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension in the Holy Land, she implored him to go, despite her poor health. John departed for Haifa, and they were never to see each other again. Vera passed away on June 2, 1992, Following a stroke at the age of eighty—five, while John was still in the Holy Land. On June 3, the day after Vera’s passing, a message was received from the Universal House of Justice:

Grieve news passing stalwart maidservant Bahá’u’lláh, Vera Long, who for many years served the Cause of God with great devotion. Her sacrificial efforts in assisting her beloved husband as national and overseas treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly is gratefully acknowledged.

As a lasting memorial to his wife, John purchased a number ofplots in the cemetery at Oakham that he donated to the Local Spiritual Assembly—a rare achievement in the United Kingdom. Vera’s dignified black marble headstone records for posterity and public notice her distinction as a Bahá’í pioneer to Rutland.

Despite the shock of his loss, John increased his services to the Faith in the few remaining months of his life. He gave an inspiring interview on the local BBC radio station about the centenary commemorations in the Holy Land, and he went traveling teaching alone for three weeks throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland. He had meticulously planned a twelve—week return trip to visit Bahá’í communities above the Arctic Circle that summer, a trip he was never to make.

His last public service was a simple affair; he officiated at the planting of a flowering cherry tree in a prominent location in Oakham—a Holy Year gift to the people from the local Bahá’í community.

John was to survive Vera by only nine months. He was taken to hospital in March 1993 following a mild heart attack, and he died on April 10, at the age of eighty—six.

News ofJohn’s passing was received during the three-day Festival of the Covenant, a major event marking the Bahá’í Holy Year in the United Kingdom hosted by the National Assembly at Liverpool University. The fifteen hundred Bahá’ís gathered at the festival had been aware ofJohn’s deteriorating health, and prayers for him had been included in the program. Still the news was received with considerable shock by his many friends and admirers. The assembled believers prayed together again for John, this time For the consolation of his soul.

At his funeral service in Oakham, Mrs. Betty Reed, the woman who had introduced the Faith to him almost four decades earlier, delivered the eulogy. The message of the Universal House of Justice dated April 13, 1993, was also read:

GRIEVE PASSING DEARLY LOVED JOHN LONG, TRUSTED STALWART PROMOTER FAITH GOD, WHO SERVED THE CAUSE WITH UNFALTERING DEDICATION OVER A PERIOD EXTENDING WELL NIGH FOUR DECADES. DISTINGUISHED BY HIS STERLING QUALITIES AND INDOMITABLE FAITH, AS WELL AS BY HIS OUTSTANDING SERVICES RENDERED IN TEACHING, ADMINISTRATIVE AND PUBLISHING FIELDS, HE GREATLY ENRICHED ANNALS FAITH BRITISH ISLES. THE MEMORY OF HIS INDEFATIGABLE LABOURS IS BOUND TO INSPIRE RISING GENERATIONS.

Adaptedfiom articles written [7}! George M Ballemyne