‘The hand is William Waddilove’s, supporting a perfect Japanese crane of peace.'
Eye - 18 August 2023
From A serendipitous snap to Celebrations in Cirencester
A serendipitous snap
David Fish, of Rugby Meeting, shared this beautiful image with Eye, along with a touching tale of good timing.
He explains: ‘The hand is William Waddilove’s, supporting a perfect Japanese crane of peace.
‘William, of Coventry Meeting, has supported the city’s Hiroshima Remembrance event for many years – he was about to take his crane into the Chapel of Unity Coventry Cathedral on 6 August when our official photographer arrived.’
David writes: ‘William has always been there for peace and reconciliation – he even took food to Greenham Common. He has supported Coventry Peace House since 1997 and in 2015 designed, and was foreman to, their huge Meeting room.’
What are you or your Meeting getting up to? Let us know by contacting our journalist, Rebecca Hardy, via news@thefriend.org or 0207 663 1174!
On this day
In the midst of the second world war, the Friend published understandably-weighty news and epistles from French and Dutch Friends.
But in the section called ‘Mainly About Friends’, more informal updates appeared, and one conjured a particularly strong mental image of a bedraggled and far-flung Quaker: ‘Christopher Taylor, of Friends Relief Service, who is organising milk canteens in Calicut, Malabar [India], a region which suffered greatly through the stoppage of rice from Burma, writes: “This is what the guide-book says: ‘On the coast of Malabar, near Calicut, the first European landing took place under Vasco da Gama, in 1498. It is a land essentially tropical, rich, fertile and densely populated. The Malabar coast has mountain scenery of great beauty… with peaceful lagoons and a coconut palm-fringed shore.’ It doesn’t mention that the average rainfall is 125 ins., half of which falls in June and July! Whether I get liquidated or the milk diluted remains to be seen.”’
Celebrations in Cirencester
Friends in Cirencester Meeting recently celebrated the 350th anniversary of the building of a Meeting House in the town.
Local Friend Seán Devine told Eye about how Friends reconnected with a Quaker location: ‘Jackie and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen [the interior designer best known for appearing in Changing Rooms], graciously invited a Meeting for Worship to be held within the grounds of their home, Roberts House, which was once used for Quaker Meetings.
‘Cirencester Friends were also invited to visit the burial ground, where thirty-six Friends are laid to rest. The ground is in a neighbouring field which once formed part of the Roberts estate.
Seán shed further light on the history of Friends in the area: ‘In the seventeenth-century Roberts House was owned by local farmer and prominent Quaker, John Roberts. Before the Meeting House in Cirencester was built in 1673, Meetings for Worship and Quarterly Meetings of Friends from all parts of Gloucestershire were held at Roberts House.
‘The building of the Meeting House was a bold statement, given that Quakers were treated with suspicion, to say the least.
‘John Roberts himself was incarcerated in Gloucester prison having been excommunicated for not attending the parish church!’
