By November 1943, Great Britain had been at war for over four years. Approaching a fifth Christmas of conflict, restrictions and shortages were taking their toll.
Families were split: eligible family members were involved in the war effort, many in the Services, others at home working in reserved occupations. Too many civilian lives had been lost due to enemy bombing, and the end of the war seemed a good way off. Rationing- of food, clothing, fuel, petrol- was a fact of life. The blackout, designed to prevent enemy aircraft identifying areas on the ground, was still observed, and made many routine tasks such as walking home at night hazardous. Transport was disrupted and use thereof by civilians restricted; priority was given to ferrying members of the armed forces around the country.
Hugh B Brown, President of the British Mission, had returned to the USA at the beginning of the war, the last of the missionaries to leave. In January 1940, President Andre K. Anastasiou was appointed Acting President of the British Mission, newly headquartered in a large Victorian house in South London, called “Ravenslea”. President Anastasiou, a Russian émigré, served as the de facto head of the Church in the British Isles throughout most of the war.
Against this backdrop of shortages and restrictions, over the weekend of 13-14 November 1943, the first ever mission-wide Relief Society Conference was held. 75 sisters from throughout the British Isles registered; many others were prevented from attendance by the refusal of travel permits, such an event not being deemed as essential travel.
The Mission Relief Society Presidency (President Marie Anastasiou, wife of the acting British Mission President, First Counselor Helen Poole and Second Counselor Maud Hawkes) organised a weekend full of activities and learning, a chance for the sisters to put aside concerns whilst relaxing with their sisters. Reports from the Conference indicate that the Saturday consisted of what we would now describe as workshops, culminating in a meal for all attending (although the mind boggles at what would have been presented, and how many ration coupons a meal for 75 would have required!) followed by an evening social.
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The Sunday morning session commenced at 10am with a Testimony and Sacrament Service “conducted by Sister Helen E. Poole, First Counsellor of the Mission RS Presidency” at which no less than 85 sisters are recorded as bearing testimony. This meeting was followed by a General Session in which sisters were instructed in Histories, Practical Work, Education, and Statistics. After receiving a bouquet, Sister Anastasiou concluded the event with an address on “The Joy of Service”.
The Mission-wide Relief Society Conference, held 77 years ago this weekend in the middle of the biggest conflict the world had ever seen, was considered a huge success. Sisters (one with a six week old son in tow!) undertook their arduous journeys home, doubtless bearing in mind the contents of a telegram from the British Mission Presidency, shared with the sisters on the Sunday morning.
“We hope that this convention will be a means of uniting the sisters of the Church, and in building up your organisation in every city, to fulfill the predicted growth of the Church in Great Britain”.
Within six months of the conclusion of the Conference, Elder Hugh B Brown returned to the British Isles in his capacity of Mission President. By the end of the war, the number of branches had increased from 68 to 75, indeed fulfilling the predicted growth of the Church.
– source : Millennial Star, December 1943. My “commentary” added 🙂
photos: Ravenslea, built in 1903, the centre of the British church for decades; Relief Society sisters gathered at Ravenslea, 1943
Interesting history. Thanks for this, Anne.
Great account of an event that might otherwise have been forgotten, in a place that never will be. Thanks, Anne!
With the ongoing pandemic, I have an extra appreciation for how joyful it must have been to gather together as a relief from everything else going on. Thanks for this, Anne!
Thank you for this important part of history. I’m 99% sure my Nana attended and is in this photo. You mention that those who attended registered, which makes me wonder if that register still exists and if you could check. Thanks.
Andrew, I’m trying to think of how anyone would even start a search for the register today.
As a one-off event, especially away from the Wasatch Front, there was no apparatus set up in 1943 to capture records like that for preservation in the Church Historian’s Office. Under wartime conditions, when they were having trouble sending and receiving routine reports (finances, membership), I can’t imagine them sending the register as a mere curio. There was no central repository for records in the British Mission (or anywhere outside Salt Lake) at the time, except perhaps the mission office; from what I’ve seen, such papers were generally considered the property of the mission president, taken home when he left, or left in the office to be used or disposed of by the next president, at will. Once in a great while a mission president’s personal papers ended up in the Church archives — I’ve just checked the catalog and don’t see anything like that for Anastasiou.
It’s barely possible that the register survived to be preserved in the papers of some later British Mission Relief Society president, in England or in Utah, but I wouldn’t have any idea how to go about hunting for it. If it survives, I suspect it will be one of those things that turns up unpredictably sometime, somewhere — and wouldn’t that be a treasure to run across?