CONTENTS page number

Introduction 2

Minute book (1) 1914-1928 5 Minute book (2) 1929-1942 7 Minute book (3) 1943-1951 12 Minute book (4) 1952-54 15

Endnotes 17 Edmund Graham Burtt Joan Mary Fry

Sample minutes 19 - 9th August 1914 - 10th October 1920 - 8th September 1939 - 7th July 1940 - 8th August 1947

COMPILED BY JANE MACE NAILSWORTH QUAKER MEETING,

GLOUCESTERSHIRE June 2017

Forty years of Quaker life in Nailsworth (1914-1954)

NOTES FROM THE MINUTE BOOKS

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Introduction

This is a selection of extracts from the minutes of Nailworth Quaker Meeting’s Meetings for Worship for Business – or, as they were then called, ‘Preparative Meetings’. They derive from four handwritten notebooks kept for a long time in the wooden chest in our meeting house - but now lodged more safely in Gloucestershire County Records Office, together with other subsequent books and folders.

Until recently, thanks to our Meeting’s archivist, Graham Dowding, these books were more recently housed in a safe in our meeting house. In April 2017 it was my task to collect these books from Graham to take them to the Records Office. We knew that in their new home these notebooks would be safer and more open to a wider readership; but both of us felt a sense of bereavement at having to let them go – and a regret that no-one would be able to find them any more in the place where they had first come to life.

So, in putting together these extracts, my aim has been to provide some remedy for that loss: something still available in our Meeting House library to give Friends and visitors some glimpse of our past: and some connection with the handwritten records of our predecessors.

For each of the four minute books, there is a summary of the monthly meetings for worship for business recorded there, including, sometimes, verbatim quotes. At the end, I have given ‘footnotes’ on two of the figures that appear in these pages: Edmund Graham Burtt (long-time Nailsworth clerk) and Joan Mary Taylor (a visiting Quaker speaker in 1944). In conclusion - with thanks to photography by our Friend Noel Baker – there is a small sample of the original handwritten pages of the notebooks.

Recurrent themes

However brief the written records are, they almost invariably begin with the statement that, at the start, minutes of the previous meeting ‘were read’. Almost every meeting 1

then routinely records decisions on these items: - appointments made to Monthly Meeting - financial statements - the reference number for the Advice and Query read at that meeting - maintenance and repair work of the Quaker burial ground in Shortwood.

Since the period of these books included the years of two world wars, there are items concerning

- collections for work in the Friends Ambulance Unit and Quaker Relief Service - food and clothing parcels for various groups

It’s worth remembering that it is only in relatively recent times that we have taken for granted the 1

production of many copies of minutes. For most of Quaker history, the practice of reading last meeting’s minutes aloud was essential for all present to have the same record of the Meeting’s business. It was how they were published.

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- the meeting’s thoughts on the discussions in Meeting for Sufferings and Yearly Meeting on conscientious objection to military service

There are also - several reports from the visits made by Friends to other countries and - a number of minutes in 1944 and 1945 on the question of whether and when to

provide Sunday school classes for children.

Names (but no numbers)

Compared to our routines of recording attendance numbers today, it comes as a surprise to find scant reference to just how many Friends participated in a given meeting. Although these minutes do give us names, we are left guessing – without numbers - what those meetings might have felt like. There are, however, three intriguing exceptions to this: in 1914, 1937 and 1944.

1 ’Number of Attenders sent to London during October – taken by Joseph Guy’

For the meeting for worship for business of 8th November 2014, the 7th minute reads: ‘a list of Attenders and Children under 16 attending our Meetings for Worship is made out and forwarded to our Monthly Meeting’

After the clerk’s signature, the list that follows tells of two weekly meetings for worship, morning and evening, with figures for male and female Friends given separately.

Oct 4 - morning - men 5 - morning - women 3 - evening - men 3 - evening - women 3 Oct 11 - morning - men 7 - morning - women 3 - evening - men 5 - evening - women 5 Oct 18 - morning - men 3

- morning - women 5 - evening - men 5 - evening - women 5 - evening - children 1 Oct 25 - morning - men 3 - morning - women 5 - morning - children 1 - evening - men 2 - evening - women 7 We can’t tell, of course, whether those attending evening meetings were the same as those who attended morning ones. We can celebrate the one child present at the evening meeting one week but we can only guess if it was the same one present at the morning meeting the week after. Even so, these rare numbers give us at least something to imagine.

What led the meeting to want to note these particular numbers, in the absence of any at other meetings and events? Three months into the war, was it an important exercise for Quakers to note how many were ‘keeping the faith’? And there’s another thing. Remembering that these are the numbers of those present at meetings for worship, how many (or how few) Friends that year made it to the monthly meetings to decide business?

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2. Number present at a single business meeting: 3rd October 1937

Over twenty years later, we have another sudden glimpse of the figures in the room, with an entry recording simply the number present at a single business meeting. At the start of the minutes for this, the clerk (E Graham Burtt) simply logs: 23 present.

It is likely that 23 was an unusually high number for the time. Nailsworth Quakers (as we shall see) had only just recovered from a four-year period when there had been so few Friends that it had been impossible to have any business meetings at all. (Our late Friend Winifred Page once quoted for me Dorothy Guest’s firsthand experience of this, ‘In those days’, she told her, ‘there was often just me and the dog.’ )

But there must have been enough: the minute books being evidence in those years that some kind of business meeting took place month after month, consistently, right up to 1932; resuming, once again, from 1937 onwards. And between the lines of the careful handwriting, in the spaces between the carefully composed words, Friends sat together to decide how to sustain the loving discipline of the Meeting’s life.

3. Number present at a ‘gathering’ for a visiting speaker, March 1944

The Saturday evening event recorded here was part of a weekend visit from Joan M.Fry, speaking on ‘Conditions in Germany’. The gathering was seen to be ‘well-attended’ (‘over 50 in number’). There is a possible explanation to such a turnout. Joan Fry would have been nationally known in Quaker circles; her topic – in the aftermath of war - one on which she had particular expertise (see the Endnote for more detail). In recording the numbers present, Nailsworth Friends might have felt they wanted to note an audience figure that did her justice.

A personal note

A few years ago, with the benefit of a one-year scholarship at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, I had the chance to research something of present-day minute-writing in other Quaker business meetings as well as draw on memories of my own experience 2

as a Nailsworth clerk. Looking through these notebooks has reminded me again how recent is today’s technology of keyboard tapping and screen reading - and how much longer our resulting minutes (two or even three A4-size typed pages from one meeting being not uncommon) than these earlier ones.

Perhaps today’s minute-writing is more legible; but it is a good deal less personal. Knowing the clerkly effort to produce a draft minute that may be acceptable to the meeting, I feel a solidarity with the crossings-out that remain in some of these handwritten texts - my own mistakes erased by the delete button; the illegible scribbles translated into formal font.

Jane Mace

(resulting in my God and decision-making: a Quaker approach published by Quaker Books in 2012.) 2

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Minute book (1) 1914-28 In this minute book, a total of a fourteen Friends are named. I have indicated here the first time a name appears in the book by using bold italics. Other italics indicate that the minute extract is verbatim.

1914 Henry John Tyler clerks this year. William Curtis and Henry Witts are mentioned. Feb Report of 10/- collection for ‘home missions’. May Graveyard wall put in order and ‘barb wire’ to keep the cattle from pushing against it. August Correspondent to Friends Temperance Union; offer of help to organisations alleviating the sufferings consequent on the war; rent for the two cottages noted as £8 p.a. and £6.10 respectively. Nov Meeting asked for subscriptions to Friends War Victims Relief funds for Belgium, France and Holland. Decide to have collections on Sunday mornings – also on Sunday evening next. Meeting house to be used for temperance meetings, together with other chapels. Collection for Friends War Victims Relief Fund: 18/- sent. List of adults and children under 16 attending Meetings for Worship forwarded to Monthly Meeting, copy kept in minute book

1915 Jan Martha Creed appointed as caretaker of the meeting house. (Every May following until 1939, a minute records her ‘reappointment’). Burial ground wall damaged by storms. Public address on Peace arranged June Special Preparative Meeting ‘to consider the state of the work carried on at the meeting house’. The meeting ‘is glad to know that Marjorie Davies is willing to serve the meeting as Clerk, and the appointment is made’. Wilfrid Strange appointed treasurer. ‘The matter of continuing the Evening Mission Meeting has received our consideration, and we decide to discontinue it for the present’, Oct ‘It is suggested the Frederick Wlliam Witts should send in his resignation as he no longer wishes to be a member.’

1916-1920 For this period W.H.Curtis served as clerk. In 1916 there are brief Minutes for meetings in January, February, May, June, August, October, November. Jan. Wall of the Friends’ Burial Ground damaged by storms and Henry Witts appointed to attend to same. In 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, the minutes are spare indeed. (Damage to the burial 3

ground walls a recurring issue).

See sample minutes for October and November 1920.3

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1921 In this year there were business Meetings in February, March May and August- at the end of which a note reads: ‘E.G. Burtt was appointed clerk in place of W.HCurtis,’

In October, a single minute (in E.G.B’s handwriting) recorded no appointment for a representative to attend Swindon MM ‘owing to the difficulty of travelling’.

In November, Edmund Graham Burtt (signing as EGBurtt) took on the role of Nailsworth clerk. Remarkably, he continued to serve in this role – including a four-year gap of business meetings - until December 1939. (See Footnote for more on this)

1923 First mention of the [presumably Monthly Meeting] Peace Committee: ‘The Peace Committee suggest the appointment of E.GBurtt as their

correspondent for Nailsworth PM. We agree to this.’ Gap in the minutes between Aug 1923 and Feb 1924. No comment recorded.

1926 May Arthur Grant reappointed as burial ground caretaker on the condition that the clerk mentions to him that “his services this past year have not been entirely satisfactory”. August Arthur Grant reported as unable to continue. Clerk instructed to ask Mr. Creed whether he would be willing to act in this role. In November this was confirmed.

1927 July W.Treganza appointed as correspondent for this meeting to the peace committee, Eliza Bowden as representative to MM;

Nov Isabella Newman appointed as representative at MM at Cheltenham. Following Monthly Meeting in July, this meeting produced a (typed, folded) report on the question ‘What is the function of the Society of Friends as a Christian Group with regard to Industry organised Society?’

1928 Meetings in January, February, May, September, November (last in the book) 8th January Clerk reported contributions to the YM fund; repairs to the path to the burial ground. The stream from the neighbour’s property ‘which was the cause of the trouble has been redirected into its proper channel’ 6th May decision to relet the cottage adjoining meeting house to Mr B.Sparrow.

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Minute book (2)1929-1942 (pencil note in flyleaf: return to Dora Fowler, Myrtle Cottage, Nailsworth)

A total of 32 new names appear in this book, identified here again in bold italics. With five Burtts, four Littens and two Fowlers (Dora and Bertha) there’s a family feeling about them.

E.G. Burtt’s methodical hand takes up to page 85 (in a notebook with total pages numbering 150). The index at the back is also his . 4

1931 July Clerk reported a detailed plan of burial grounds prepared and forwarded to MM Nov Letter from Dora Fox drawing attention to the work of Leonard and Laura Walker ‘was read’ (see: 1938 minute). Clerk instructed to circulate it to members.

1932 March Request for electric light by tenants of the cottage approved. Then a page with just one entry signed by E.G.Burtt and Wilfred Savage recording that between 1932 and 1936 that there were no PMs (business meetings) –

‘for though the Meeting was always open on Sunday mornings, the attendance did not seem large enough to justify the holding of regular business meetings; and the affairs of the meeting were carried on by the Clerk and the Treasurer’.

1937 May The meeting for worship for business returns:

‘The clerk reported that during the past 4 years the property of the Meeting had been kept in repair, that the burial grounds had been cared for and that the Accounts had been made up year by year and a statement sent to the Monthly meeting treasurer’.

Ernest Litten and Dorothy Guest appointed to monthly meeting. The clerk, Graham Burtt (who had by now served sixteen years)

‘expressed the hope that his place as clerk could be taken by some Friend living nearer to Nailsworth. The matter was discussed but it was decided to defer action.’

The headings in this index are these: 4

Appointments; Accounts; Allotment Work; Burial Ground at FMH; Cirencester; Fiends Service Council; Library; Monthly Meeting arrangements; Repairs to Meeting House; Spanish Relief; Trainees from depressed areas; War emergency Peace Committee.

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Mr. Creed reappointed as Shortwood burial ground caretaker and Mrs. Creed as caretaker of the Meeting House premises.

In July, Ernest Newman and William Guest appointed as MM reps, and Dorothy Guest as assistant clerk. Ernest Litten agreed to take on the role of treasurer, following the death of Wilfred A.Strange, who had done this for many years.

A meeting the previous week had been organised by Friends and supported by a wide variety of other organisations, at which the sum of £5.18.9 had been collected for the Spanish relief fund.

From September on, the minutes are shorter again, Graham Burtt continuing as clerk. In October, four representatives appointed to Monthly Meeting: Dorothy and William Guest, and Juanita and Margaret Litten. Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting held at Llandrindod Wells the previous month were read.

The proposal from a Monthly Meeting committee was discussed ‘to provide for circulation modern books on religious subjects’. The loan of books from MM would be welcomed. The same committee had supplied some pamphlets. A letter from Leonard and Laura Walker of West China had been received.

1938 In March, four substantial items:

- ‘William Guest reported on the lending library which had now been functioning for more than a year’ but so far Friends had not made use of it since Friends seemed already to possess those books on the ‘list from Gloucester’. WG suggested Friends “might like to put their best and newest books on loan on the shelves lent for the purpose in the Meeting House, being careful to see that their names were clearly written on the fly leaves and being able of course to withdraw them at will”.

- Dorothy Guest reported that ‘the peace meeting’ held in February had been ‘well attended’ and had ‘aroused great interest’, with Walter Bone of Gloucester as speaker. The Peace Pledge Union had paid 5/- for the lighting and heating.

- Douglas Summers gave an account of a meeting of Young Friends held in Gloucester the previous Sunday, at which Hazel Wigham had spoken of her experiences in America during and after the all World Conference. The minute ends:‘Young Friends have decided to meet regularly on the last Sunday afternoon of each month.’

- William Guest read out a letter from Friends Service Council, expressing appreciation for the work done in NW, of our interest in FSC work, particularly in regard to Spanish and Chinese relief.

April Dorothy Guest’s handwriting appears for the first time, but only as signature. May Dorothy Guest’s handwriting again: but the signature is Graham Burtt’s.

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Business mostly repairs to the ceiling of the meeting house, plus an invitation to ‘our friend Dorothy Litten of Uley, for many years matron of the Friends Hospital in Brumana in Syria’ to give an account of Friends’ work there the following Sunday. As before, Mr and Mrs Creed are reappointed as caretakers. June Letter from MM clerk suggested use of Meeting House premises to other Christian Pacifist groups; Graham Burtt to reply that this is already being done. Dorothy Guest reported from last Meeting for Sufferings. July Dorothy Guest and Graham Burtt to be representatives at Monthly Meeting at Nailsworth and Dorothy Guest and Ruth Burtt to take charge of the arrangements. Sept Report of repairs. Dora Fowler, Lionel Ayliffe and Dorothy Guest appointed to represent Western LM at the ‘adjourned yearly meeting’: Dec The small table - ‘said to have been in the meeting house since its first opening in George Fox’s time’ - had been “put into good condition by having had its worm-eaten parts replaced with oak from an old house in Nailsworth.”

Dorothy Guest brought a suggestion from the Manager of Stroud Labour Exchange for ‘a gathering of a semi religious nature [to be] held on Sunday evenings for the benefit of the youths and girls working in and near Nailsworth as transferees from the mining areas’. The discernment was: The Meeting felt sympathy with the proposal and would like to be kept in touch

with the development but did not think the Meeting House would be a suitable place. It was suggested that the organisation at present being run by Mrs Fownes Luttrell in Stroud might provide a means of finding social life for transferees.’

1939 Edward Newman mentioned. Lionel Ayliffe to get in touch with Foster Redfern, come to live near Wotton-under-Edge. Letters from Lucy Burtt* from China and David Oliver from Syria and Palestine were held over till the following Sunday. Dorothy Litten safely home from hospital work in Spain and Muriel Litten from work in a school for Eurasians in India. Glad that Cuthbert Wigham was among those safely returned from Spain. March: P.M.Eliott visited and had come to meeting. Meeting for Sufferings minute on national service obtained and circulated. Dr. Rutter of Birmingham had offered to give his services as instructor in an ambulance class of 24 students for those wanting a St. John’s certificate. May: Mrs. Creed reappointed and thanked for the ‘interest she takes and for the flowers which she produces each Sunday unfailingly summer and winter alike’. July: Mrs Creed and her daughters also thanked for the new cushion covers in the Meeting as a contribution to the renovated meeting house. Arthur Creed’s sudden death reported. Treasurer Ernest Litten moved to Hereford. William Guest to succeed him.

Sept: the following letter read out from Meeting for Sufferings: ‘Dear Friends, We have met together today under the shadow of war, and strength and courage have come to us as we have realised the comradeship of each other and of God. We want to share with you, dear Friends,

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our confidence that we are all in God’s keeping. Stand fast in the faith: quit you like men: be strong! Let us try to live in the spirit and meet with courage all the calls for service which will come to us. On behalf of the Meeting for Sufferings, Arthur Eddington (clerk)’

Sept: Laura More and William Guest appointed as reps to MM at Cheltenham

Letter read out ‘again’ from the German Emergency Committee ‘asking Friends throughout the country to be willing to give help and advice to alien refugees in their neighbourhood... ‘ The minute recorded: ‘So far as is known there is nothing that needs to be done in this district.’ Letter read out from the Peace Committee ‘emphasising the opportunity which the present crisis has brought of witnessing to the folly and futility of warlike means for attaining peaceful objectives and encouraging Friends to stand.’

William Guest reported that Walter Creed had agreed to act as caretaker for 40/- a year (Arthur had been paid 25/-) and for this sum to ‘cut the grass twice a season, keep the hedges in repair, keep the water course clear, and undertake the digging of graves if required, with walling or other special work to be paid for as extra at current rates.’

Nov ‘Special preparative meeting’ with these names listed as present: Laura Moore, Madeline More, Dora Fowler, Dorothy Guest, Ruth Burtt, Lionel Ayliffe, Douglas Summers, E.Graham Burtt. The following undertook the various duties connected with the administration of the meeting’s affairs – clerk (Dora Fowler) treasurer, librarian and correspondent to the library committee, peace correspondence, committee for care of property.

On Dorothy Guest’s suggestion, agreed that meeting should try to get permission to put up a sign saying: ‘Friends Meeting House’, with times of Meeting for Worship and a noticeboard inside the meeting.

1940 Jan Letter from secretary of local branch of Peace Pledge Union about a new committee to ‘give advice when required to ‘Conscientious Objectors about to appear before tribunals.’ (additional note added in smaller writing by Dora Fowler, clerk: ‘Wm Guest reported that they had joined this PPU committee and that they were meeting in the meeting house’) March Letter from MM about the use of Advices and Queries. Nailsworth have appointed a particular Friend to read them ‘how and when way seemed to open’. May Dorothy and William Guest offered use of their house and garden for a picnic lunch to discuss Advices and Queries on 17 June. Sept John Burtt and William Guest appointed as MM reps.

Oct Dorothy Guest reported that details of size of room and accommodation for housing refugees in meeting house propery had been forwarded to Friends House. No demand as yet. November: upstairs room being prepared for evacuees

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1941 Jan

‘An elderly couple were sent to our Meeting House room on Dec 13th from the Glyn Road Rest Centre, Hackney through the agency of Mrs. Cross and Hilda Cashmore. They have settled well and are quite pleased with their quarters.’

( July Joyce Wells visited and gave a ‘helpful and practical address’ about going to work in the community. Cuthbert Wigham took the chair. The only notes of a marriage ‘being solemnized’ at the FMH since 1914: a couple from Manchester - Walter Sunderland and Evelyn Leech on Saturday 7th June Oct The possibility of ‘water being laid on’ in one of the cottages. Suggestions from the Friends’ Social and Industrial Council for the formation of study groups brought this response:

“It was felt that our members are so scattered and transport is so difficult that one comprehensive group for the meeting is out of the question. Friends are encouraged to continue with their small groups for study as heretofore.”

Lionel Ayliffe told of two Friends, Harold Whatley and his wife, who had lately been appointed wardens of a hostel for evacuated children at Cam. Nov

‘Some consideration has been given to Minute 13 (Home Service Committee) of Yearly meeting. Concern has been expressed at the smallness of our cooperation with the local community and we are anxious to investigate any possible avenues of service.’

Clerk asked to get copies of the pamphlet ‘Where our work should start’ to help further discussion. A list of roles appointed by nominations committee included: Bertha Fowler (Home Service Council correspondent) Hilda Phillips (Industrial and Social Order Council)

1942 Dora Fowler still the clerk Jan Laura Moore gave ‘a most interesting report’ on the Conference at Kingsmead on Christianity and Marxism. Full report which postponed until the next Sunday. (but the February minute reports that, ‘owing to unusually bad weather today and preceding Sundays, we have been unable to have the conclusion of Laura Moore’s report’) April Pencil note to ask Friends for any corrections and additions to list of members. June Margaret Worsdell from Woodbrooke to give talk on ‘Friends and the Bible today’ July Collections reported for Friends War Relief Service Committee, Stroud Hospital. Oct the name Geoffrey Hoyland among four representatives to Monthly Meeting Nov Special minute of Yearly Meeting discussed and this minute drawn up:

‘The need was stressed for all of us so to control our actions that our individual lives are not hindering the cause of peace; but it was pointed out that corporate

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action need not, and should not, wait for individual perfection. If only we would all order our lives according to the prompting of the Spirit within us then we should be able, as a body, to go forward with power.’

A Mrs. Eleanor Waite of Edgeworth Manor Stroud asking for Friends’ literature from Friends House. Charles Newman reported that he visited her on his wife’s behalf and found that she had attended Friends’ meetings when she lived within a possible distance. Isabella Newman keeping in touch with her. Dec Report of Monthly Meeting committee to help conscientious objectors – listing nominations from each meeting. Signed John Fowler (from Gloucester) clerk. New nominations: William Guest to take over from Dora Fowler.

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Minute book (3) 1943-1951 Familiar names again in this book: Wilfred Gardener, Dorothy Guest, William Guest, Bertha Fowler, Dora Fowler, E.Graham Burtt, Michael Burtt, Ruth Burtt, Isabella Newman, Edward Newman.

Other new names appear of those visited or discussed for visits, including these in January who had made enquiries or ‘applied to’ the literature committee (Mrs Edith Marshall and C.M. Gittings, both of Stroud, in January):

Various clerks feature in this book, including William Guest and Dora Fowler, all of whom have strikingly regular cursive handwriting, with no spelling mistakes evident – although occasional errors in the draft (in August 1943) needed attention.

As in earlier years, there are ‘Special’ preparative meetings (eg in October 1943, after the first meeting in the month, a second one for which the sole agenda item is appointments for the coming year.)

1943 Jan Madeline Moore appointed as one of three reps to Monthly Meeting July Ragged nature of poster board considered and suitability of posters discussed. Decided to leave the ‘Invitation to the Meeting’ painted on the Board instead of temporary invitation posters spoiled by weathering. 5

1 August Dorothea Hoyland reported a visit to Sophie E Griffiths of the Edge, near Stroud who had written for Friends Literature (but ‘expressed surprise at being visited’)

The noticeboard was considered again in October, and then in November, when 5

‘it was suggested that it be tidied up as soon as can be and that under war conditions it was necessary that we do it ourselves and that Edward Newman and Michael Burtt might be willing to do this’.

The need to repair and repaint the finger post also proved an ongoing discussion item.

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Oct: William Guest was given permission to use the upper room for meetings of the Rabbit and Poultry Club at a charge of 2/6 an evening 19th October: Dorothy Guest reported visitation to Erika Longley, and the clerk, to Mr. And Mrs. Max Weidenfelt (‘refugee Jews at Stroud’), who ‘expressed a wish to read a book about Friends’ principles’.

1944 March letter read from Elizabeth Cadbury on behalf of the National Peace Council. Decided to have a collection. April Dora Fowler empowered to arrange occupation of the upper room for billeting an elderly woman. June, July and August Suggestions on the question of holding at meeting at a time suitable for young children to be considered after Bertha Fowler had discussed it with Edward Newman. July Letter from Mrs. Long of Chalford, a ‘somewhat isolated Friend’, was read, in which she expressed satisfaction in being kept in touch with what Friends are doing. The Clerk asked to send greetings. August Clerk (William Guest) said he expected to see Oliver Ashford and his family in the afternoon and would enquire if they wished to attend the children’s meeting held in Gloucester each month or would prefer to help in starting one in Nailsworth. Sept Oliver Ashford and his wife had decided it would be better for their children to attend the children’s meeting at Gloucester where there is one already established rather than begin a children’s meeting at Nailsworth. Oct Extract from a letter from Monthly Meeting clerk and a circular letter on behalf of Yearly Meeting read referring to Minute 30 of last Yearly Meeting as to positive witness in the present situation. It was felt that the meeting’s part was to live the Gospel, rather than to hold group meetings – supporting any members who may feel ‘called to do so’. Dec: Mrs. Creed, caretaker – work appreciated.

1946 Sept Clerk asked to ‘write to the Urban District Council about the lighting of the lamp over the Meeting House’. Nov ‘The council could not see their way to light it and suggested Friends got a hurricane lamp instead.’

1947 Jan

‘The question has been raised of the collection of small amounts of rationed foods to form the 7lb parcels now allowed to be sent to Europe.’

Clerk – now Ruth Burtt to discover more about organisation in Stonehouse and report back. William Guest reported he had distributed to Friends 300 copies of the ‘statement on continued military conscription’ issued by Meeting for Sufferings’

March ‘Owing to the long and severe spell of frost and snow in January, February and March, it was not possible to hold our usual Preparative Mtg in February.

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Meetings for worship were regularly held and during the worst of the weather and the fuel shortage, we met in the house of Gertrude and Robert Hall.’

...’The existence of a German POW camp at Woodchester recently came to our notice and Wilfred Gardner made contact with its commandant. The men may accept hospitality and must return to their Camp by dusk. The opening of our houses to these Germans who have now been so long away from their own is felt by Friends to be a desirable gesture of international friendship.’

May Eric Bevan to act as Correspondent for the Friends’ Education Council. Meeting decides against renewing the annual 10/-subscription to Stroud Social Service Council. July

‘In spite of the national restrictions on bread and cake it has been possible to arrange for our usual MM tea through generous contributions from our members, both of bread units and of gifts in kind.’

Sept Urgent appeal for the Lebanon Hospital for Mental Diseases ‘doing valuable pioneer work in the Near East on the lines of our York Retreat’. Nov

‘We have had before us the needs of the children in our meeting…. Some parents prefer their children to share with them the full hour’s worship, and we have marked proof in our meeting that this can be satisfactorily achieved even from the earliest age.’

Considered other arrangements for the first half hour. Oct New Gloucester branch of the Marriage Guidance Council ‘merits the interest and support of Friends’. Nov The pros and cons of children sharing with[their parents] the full hour’s worship (‘we have marked proof in our meeting that this can be satisfactorialy achieved’)....others feel a small class for the first half-hour would be better. Clerk to follow up.

1948 Feb Agreed to collection for two Sundays in response to appeal for funds from the National League for Education of Gambling. March ‘A very acceptable weekend visit from Joan M.Fry’ speaking on Saturday evening ‘to a well-attended gathering (over 50 in number)’ on ‘Conditions in Germany’ followed by a picnic lunch ‘for further fellowship’ on Sunday, June Committee formed to make proposals to setting up a children’s class. July Last Sunday of the month to have a children’s class in the cottage next to the meeting house – ‘by the kind hospitality of Mary P.Naish’ and report next meeting on whether they should come into meeting at its start rather than towards the end Sept Second discussion on anti-vivisection; this time on conditions of slaughter houses.

1949 Jan Decision that Monthly Meeting should obtain one dozen ‘Invitation to Meeting’ display cards, designed by Yorks Friends Service Committee. Help over accommodation and entertainment offered to German students and POWs in the area.

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July ‘Our Peace Correspondent has brought to our notice a letter from the Peace Committee’ Decide to explore the possibility of exhibiting suitable posters (dealing with conscription etc) on the local hoardings. Oct Meeting’s responsibility to isolated Friends, Decide to proceed with arranging for entertaining and maintaining two German students. Dec One German student able to visit and attend meeting for worship. Decide to continue exhibiting anti-conscription posters on the hoardings, but to vary the sites used.

1950 Feb Discussion about the reading of Advices and Queries, in particular, ‘the most profitable time for reading’ and the length of time given to considering them. 29 July to 12 August Hosted three young German male Friends. Letting of premises to Nailsworth WI for sale of produce. Frank Stuart appointed to Premises Committee; Phyllis Stuart to Children’s Committee.

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Minute book (4) 1952-1954

The book starts in July 1951 and ends with the meeting held in June 1968. For these notes, we close in 1954, with clerk Wilfred W.Gardner (continuing until Jan 1956). 6

1952 Feb: thanks to John Smith for gift of mahogany bookcase. Letting to Workers’ Educatiaon Association for 24 lectures (continued to 1957). Lionel Ayliffe mentioned.

1953 Feb Decision to hold mid-week morning meeting for worship. March Decision to hold additional evening meeting for worship on second Sunday in the month (note: this ceased after six months) Continued support for the anti-conscription campaign and Central Board for Conscientious Objectors

1954 March

Clerks who followed him in the rest of the book were D.W,Tod; Eric J.Bevan; K.V.Keleny (who later 6

signs herself Kathleen Keleny), Rosemary Frost and Rachel Sturge

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‘We have considered the question of the acceptance of the Peace Testimony as a condition of acceptance into the Society and ask our representatives to MM to bear the following conclusions in mind: 1. No non-christian should be accepted into the Society 2. Extreme care should be exercised in the choice of visitors [for applicants]

that they should be clear-minded themselves on the Peace Testimony and its implications; that they should beware of accepting applicants solely on the grounds that they are nice people and an asset to the Meeting;

3. Each case should be considered on its own merits. All of us are agreed that the acceptance of the peace Testimony should at least be a goal within sight.

A difference of opinion concerning the rightness of rejecting an applicant solely on the ground that he could not accept the Peace Testimony.

Indoor sanitation installed in caretaker’s cottage. Meeting for Worship twice a month in Wotton-under-Edge.

“The meeting places upon the clerk a responsibility for spiritual discernment so that he or she may watch the growth of the meeting toward unity and judge the right time to submit the minute, which in its first form may serve to clear the mind of the meeting about the issues which really need its decision.”

Quaker Faith &Practice 3.07

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ENDNOTES

E.G.Burtt, aka Graham Burtt, 1895-1986

A written record of the spoken words of the young Graham Burtt can be found in a folder of transcripts in Gloucestershire County Record Office. These are from the tribunal hearings in March 1916 of twenty-three young men making their claim for conscientious objection to military service.

Edmund Graham grew up in Gloucester as a Quaker, attending Sidcot school. He was still a young man when he first clerked Preparative Meetings in Nailsworth (26 years old). His father ran a business making beehives. By the time he stood in front of a tribunal panel in March 1916, he was a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and a regular attender at Gloucester Quaker meeting. Granted ‘conditional exemption’ as a conscientious objector, he worked for the next three years in France, first with the Friends Ambulance Unit and then the Friends War Victims Relief Committee.

After the War, he went on to work in the family beehive business and worshipped as a Quaker in a number of Gloucestershire local meetings as well Nailsworth. Here he served as clerk for what must be another kind of record: eighteen years. He went on to live a long life, dying in 1986 at the age of 91.

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Sources: Transcripts of WW1 Tribunal hearings, March 1916, Gloucestershire County Records Office; Friends Ambulance Unit ‘personnel cards’ and Friends War Victims Relief Committee records,

Friends House Library, London Hazel Thompson, EGBurtt’s youngest granddaughter, recalling his life for ‘The Echo Chamber’

sound and photographic installation inspired by Conscientious Objectors in WW1 (compiled by Gloucestershire Quaker artists Fiona Meadley and Ruth Davey and exhibited in the Friends House, London in August 2016.)

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Joan Mary Fry, 1862-1955

Joan had had experience as a public speaker before the 1944 Saturday evening in Nailsworth. On the eve of Friends’ 1910 Yearly Meeting in London, she gave the third Swarthmore lecture. Her topic was ‘The communion of life’. In it, she spoke of the tenets pf Quakerism, aiming to ‘show clearly the intimate connection of religion and ordinary affairs.’ For her, she said,

‘Quakerism is nothing unless it is a communion of life, a practical showing that the spiritual and material spheres are not divided, but are as the concave and the convex sides of one whole, and that the one is found in and through the other.’

It’s just possible that Joan and Graham Burtt may have come across each other during the time when, as a young CO, he was preparing his case for exemption to the Gloucester tribunal in 1916 - since by then she was committed to supporting men in his position.

A lifelong Quaker campaigner for peace and social reform, Joan served throughout the First World War as a Quaker Prison Chaplain as a support to men at their tribunal and in prison who had a conscientious objection to war. Between 1919 to 1926, with other Friends, she went on to work in Germany to organise food distribution networks as famine relief.

This firsthand experience must have made her an inspiring speaker for Nailsworth Quakers and others at her talk, years later on ‘life in Germany’.

Like Graham Burtt, Joan Fry lived a long life. This extract from her reflections published as Quaker Faith and Practice 21.56 was evidently written the same year (1955) as her death, when she would have been 89 years old:

“I believe it is of real value to our earthly life to have the next life in mind, because if we shut it out of our thoughts we are starving part of our spiritual nature – we are like children who fail to grow up – none the finer children for that. Not only do we miss much joy in the earthly life if we imagine it to be the whole of our existence, but we arrive on the further shore with no knowledge of the language of the new country where we shall find ourselves unfitted for the larger life of the spirit. George Fox urged Friends to ‘take care of God’s glory’. That is a motto for all spheres known and unknown.”

Sources Nigel Morgan ‘Joan Mary Fry and the Communion of Life’, in The Friend https://thefriend.org/article/joan-mary-fry-and-the-communion-of-life Joan Mary Fry, article in Wikipedia (last updated March 2016, visited April 2017) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Mary_Fry

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SAMPLE MINUTES

The following are verbatim copies from the minute books of five Meetings for Worship for Business in the period.

(1) 1914

Preparative Meeting held – 9.8.14 ____________________________

1. The minutes of last meeting have been read

2. The 10 & 11 queries have been read 3. We appoint Edmund Tylor to be our Correspondent to the Friends’ Temperance

Union 4. We appoint Joseph Guy to take the Census of members and attenders at the

Morning and evening Meetings during Oct – four Sundays 5. Friends offer to help in any way needed in their power to alleviate the sufferings

consequent upon the War – working with the organisations in the district – W.H.Curtis, J.Guy, H.Witts, P.Blake, H.J.Tylor and Edmund Tylor

6. The 4th Minute of 10.5.14 respecting rent of Cottages has been discussed and it has been decided to ask rent from M.Lawyer £8 a year and from Jones £6.10.0 a year to commence 1.1.15

7. We decide to ask our treasurer what remuneration is given to our caretaker for Meeting premises and to fix a settled amount to cover all meeting

(2) 1920

Nailsworth Preparative Meeting held on the 10th of the 10th Month 1920

Minutes of last Meeting read and confirmed 1st Queries 9 and 10 read and considered 2nd Monthly Meeting held at Swindon. No representative appointed.

W.H.Curtis

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(3) At preparative meeting September 8th 1939

1. Laura Moore and William Guest were appointed as our representatives to Monthly Meeting at Cheltenham on the 12th.

2. A group of FOR* members have asked for the use of the meeting house on the 14th for a devotional meeting: following a country walk in the afternoon. Friends gladly agree to this and are willing to provide tea.

3. A letter from the German Emergency Committee asking Friends throughout the country to be willing to give help and advice to alien refugees in their neighbourhood was read again but so far as is known there is nothing that needs to be done in this district.

4. Reference was made again to a letter read a fortnight ago from the F.F.C* asking Friends to find whether any need arises for Sunday School work amongst children who have been evacuated from urban areas of dense population. William Guest undertook to find out what conditions exist in Nailsworth and it was suggested that schoolmasters would prove better sources of information than ministers of religion.

5. A letter from the Peace Committee was read emphasising the opportunity which the present crisis has brought of witnessing to the folly and [end of this page, next page not copied]

(4)

Preparative Meeting held July 7th 1940

1. The minutes of last meeting have been read and approved.

2. Dora Fowler, Edward Newman and John Burtt are appointed our representatives to the M.Meeting at Nailsworth on July 10th

3. All arrangements for the tea at Monthly Meeting are left in the hands of Mrs. Creed

4. We have been especially concerned, after discovering Query 11, at our failure to provide opportunities for religious teaching for those who are young – either in years or in membership of the Society. As a small Preparative Meeting, we have little scope for such opportunities and we therefore wish to lay our concern before the Monthly Meeting. We realise that this is not the time to multiply meetings but we do feel that if a short period could be set aside at Monthly Meetings (perhaps by condensing the routine business) there are Friends in the Monthly Meeting itself and outside it who would be willing to give helpful talks on matters connected with our religious testimony and discipline.

D.L.Fowler. Clerk ! 20

(5)

Nailsworth Preparative Mtg held The 10th of the 8th 1947

.............................................

Minute I The Minutes of last Meeting have been read.

Minute II The question was raised as to whether Friends wished Report from Mtg for Sufferings and the London Committees to be given on the same (Sunday) occasion as Preparative Mtg. It was decided that unless the business of the Preparative mtg seemed likely to be brief, these reports should be taken the following Sunday.

Minute III M.Mtg hopes that local meetings may be willing to contribute to the fund for Llandrindod Wellts mtg house – which needs the sum of £700 to repair damage in storm last winter. We decide to take collections on two successive Sundays and to consider whether the sum this raised (meets our obligation) is adequate to the occasion.

Minute IV We have received from M.Mtg copies of two statements on Conscription and Compulsory Military Service discussed by them at their last meeting. It is left to individual Friends to use these statements as they feel personally concerned.

Ruth Burtt

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