The London District Presidency – Andre Anastasiou, E. James Hill, and James R. Cunningham – were called to serve as the acting presidency of the British Mission when the North American missionaries were hastily called back home at the outbreak of World War II. This is James R. Cunningham’s brief account of the local members who rallied to keep missionary work alive during the war years.

Britain’s War-Time Missionaries

By James R. Cunningham

On Sunday, December 24th, 1939, President Hugh B. Brown called the London District Presidency into his office and informed us that the missionaries were being called home to the U.S.A. because of war conditions in Europe.

He also asked us to look after the Mission affairs during his absence. On January 10th, 1940, we were set apart by President Brown in our offices of the Mission Presidency. Two days later. President Brown left England for the U.S.A. and our appointments officially began.

Now that the excitement and hustle of their departure was over, we had time to collect our thoughts. How had it all come about?

The events leading up to the declaration of war were still fresh in our memories: the growing tension as each new aggression by the Nazi horde shortened the gap between our shores and their outposts; the sickening feeling of futility as thrice the ambassador with the umbrella sallied to talk peace with a man whose heart was set on war; the visit of President Joseph Fielding Smith of the Council of the Twelve, which we learned afterwards was for the very purpose of preparing the missionaries for the bloodshed which was so shortly to be poured out upon the nations; that peaceful Sunday morning when the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, spoke over the radio informing us that we were at war; the gathering of the missionaries from over the Mission; and that final meeting in “Ravenslea” with 130 elders, each seeking to persuade President Brown to allow him to stay.

Now, for the first time in the history of the Mission for over one hundred years, we were left without a single missionary. The office itself seemed as if a cyclone had blown through it; papers, reports, equipment, littered the rooms. We were to find out later that the Saints in the Mission were very disturbed, as many of the departing missionaries had not time to notify the members of their sudden departure.

But provision had seemingly been made for just such an emergency. During the mission of President Joseph J. Cannon in 1936, local elders had been called to preside over the branches and districts. This foresight on behalf of the authorities perhaps prevented a breakdown in the functioning of the Mission.

President Brown’s last admonition to us was to “hold the fort.” It was soon decided that in order to carry out the work, local members must be called to serve as full-time missionaries. The response to these calls was spontaneous and inspiring from young men and women not yet out of their teens to elderly grandmothers and grandfathers. Soon an office staff was obtained and two by two the missionaries began to spread over the Island. A few months later, a missionary convention was held in Birmingham with some sixty missionaries and missionaries-to-be in attendance. The spirit prevailing proved that the Saints in Great Britain fully intended to keep the Gospel message before the people by missionary endeavour.

As problems arose, solutions were sought. Many Saints desired to go on missions; few had the necessary means to support themselves. Therefore, a system of branch missionary funds was set up and each branch strived to have at least one missionary in the field; several had three or four.

Over one hundred young men and women responded to their calls and served on full-time missions varying from six months, in some cases, to as long as four years in others. To supplement the work, a home missionary system was organised, whereby a group of 400 Saints were each assigned to spend a certain number of hours per week in missionary work. Despite air-raids and total black-outs, this group carried out their objective. Perhaps their faith had something to do with the fact that not one was hurt in any way from bombing.

After the desperate retreat of the Allied forces at Dunkirk, the nation held its breath, waiting for what seemed the inevitable invasion of our shores. Then the missionaries were told, “In the event of an enemy invasion, make your way back immediately to your homes and care for those dependent upon you.” Fortunately, the execution of those instructions was never to be required. Soon the tide of battle turned and many of our elders from America began to attend our meetings. Although in uniform, the power and spirit of the American Latter-day Saint boys have imbued our own Saints with fresh courage.

Then came the return of the authorities from Zion, and, shortly afterwards, the first missionaries. Their task completed, one by one, the British war-time missionaries finished their missions and returned to their everyday labours. Their days and months as missionaries have passed and become history, but the effect of their missions still endures in the firmer testimonies and enduring friendships made.

We found the Gospel very satisfying then and worthy of sacrifice. Did we not trudge many miles hitch-hiking on circuit and endure ridicule and labour in tracting and open-air meetings? It was the missionary spirit that provided the motive power. This can be recaptured; all our lives can be enriched by a glance back on those happy faithful missionary days.

The Saints in England indeed responded in a noble fashion to the missionary call during the war. Since those days, I have never met a single missionary who regretted the spending of either time or money on his mission. Almost everyone replies in the same terms, “I received the most benefit of all.”

For my part, it was the laying of a foundation stone in my life. It seemed that during that missionary service I enjoyed a life-time of Gospel experience. The spiritual uplift received by a missionary will repay him or her an hundred-fold for labour and means expended in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for has not the Master written, “give and it shall be given unto you.”