Eye - 11 August 2023
From A dubious honour to The electric constable
A dubious honour
On the seventh day of the seventh month, seven Friends approached the headquarters of the Severn Trent water company.
Pete Duckworth, of Coventry Meeting, told Eye that the Friends ‘joined over fifty protesters from a range of groups marching through the city to Severn Trent head office to protest against environmental damage caused by sewage dumped into local rivers’.
‘The Severn Trent shareholder dividend exceeded £260 million, the CEO is the highest paid of the UK water bosses receiving over £3.2 million this year mostly in bonuses and perks…
‘The accompanying photo (above) shows the high point of the event where “Richard the Turd” was crowned.’
No such thing as a silly question!
As World Quaker Day appears on the horizon, Eye wonders: Are there any questions you’ve had about Quakers but not known who to ask? Or is there something you wish you’d known when you first came to Quakerism? There’s no such thing as a silly question, so waft them our way by emailing eye@thefriend.org!
Fond recollections
A recent cover story inspired Roger Sturge, of Bristol Area Meeting, to share some memories with Eye’s readers.
‘Seeing Elfrida Vipont Foulds’ photo on the front of the Friend [14 July] brings back so many memories.
‘At my mother’s funeral she introduced ministry by saying: “Rachel was my oldest friend, I’ve known her all my life.”
‘A decade later her daughter, Dorothea (Dudi) Nimmo, and I were invited to reflect on Margaret Heathfield’s Swarthmore Lecture and to address her talk’s key question: “Is the Society of Friends a movement or the people of God (i.e. a church)?” at a gathering of the Seekers Association at Charney Manor.
‘Dorothea was something of a rebel poet and represented “movement”. I was there to represent the establishment (I was, or had recently been, clerk of Yearly Meeting).
‘In my summing up I couldn’t help remarking that my mother resigned her Quaker membership and became an attender as an act of rebellion; her own mother was the clerk of Meeting for Sufferings.’
The electric constable
Eye’s tale of John Tawell, the Quaker criminal caught by new-fangled electric telegraph (14 July), prompted David Swain, of Wahroonga Meeting in Australia, to share another source of insight.
He writes that: ‘You may be interested to know that the case of John Tawell has also been documented by the Australian author Carol Baxter, in her book The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable: A true tale of passion, poison and pursuit (published by Oneworld Publications: 2014).
‘Tawell donated the first Sydney Meeting House’, says David, but adds, ‘It has now disappeared, and we have tried to forget him.’
Penning a piece
Would you like to write an article for the Friend? Here are the word counts you need!
• One page: 600 words
• Two page: 1,200 words
• Poetry: Please don’t submit poems longer than a page.
