Quaker pacifists in A House Through Time
Story of Quaker couple who stood the nationalist fervour of the Boer war.
The Quaker pacifist couple William and Mary Lucy Whiting featured in the BBC programme A House Through Time.
The episode follows a request from the programme-makers earlier this year for access to the Friend’s archives.
Historian David Olusoga described the couple’s controversial campaigning against the Boer war during the height of what he called ‘war mania’. This included letters in the Leeds Times and Leeds Mercury, signed by William Whiting and other Quakers. As tireless peace campaigners, the couple – who were married at Friends Meeting House in Leeds – stood against the nationalist fervour, with William Whiting handing out anti-war pamphlets. Quaker historian Richard Allen describes how ‘William would have faced enormous hostility… he could have been jostled, his family could have been intimidated, he could have felt that his life was in danger. We know that there were attacks on Quakers’.
Quaker groups across the country went on to form a relief group for Boer prisoners and Mary Lucy started a clothing drive.
The programme focuses on the historical residents of what is now 5 Grosvenor Mount in Headingley in Leeds.
