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Wellesley Tudor Pole

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Name
  
Wellesley Pole

Died
  
September 13, 1968

Role
  
Author

Books
  
The Silent Road

Wellesley Tudor Pole wwwchalicewellorgukuploadedfilesCMSAboutIma

Major Wellesley Tudor Pole O.B.E. (23 April 1884 – 13 September 1968) was a spiritualist and early British Baha'i.

Contents

He authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with spiritualism and the Baha'i Faith as well as the quest for the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend.

Personal history and events of note

Born in 1884, he was educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton in Devon and at the age of 20 became managing director of the family firm involved in marketing grains and cereals and also became involved in adventures to find the Holy Grail. He pursued investigations in the Middle East. On a visit to Constantinople prior to the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 he heard of `Abdu'l-Baha head of the Baha'i Faith and met and interviewed him over 9 days in late November 1910 in Cairo and Alexandria.

For the next several decades he was active in the Baha'i Faith as well as other interests. When `Abdu'l-Baha travelled to the West, Tudor Pole spoke the English translation of his first talk on the evening of 10 September 1911. In 1912 he married Florence Snelling, with whom he had three children over the next nine years.

During World War I, Tudor Pole served in the Directorate of Military Intelligence in the Middle East and was directly involved in addressing the concerns raised by the Ottoman threats against `Abdu'l-Baha which ultimately required General Allenby altering his plans for the prosecution of the war in the Palestine theatre. After the War, Tudor Pole began his writing career with Private Dowding which dealt with a soldier and his afterlife, and instituted The Silent Minute (in collaboration with Sir Winston Churchill), which united the British people each evening at 9 p.m. at the chiming of Big Ben on the radio. Then came The Lamplighter Movement. In 1921, while Tudor Pole was Secretary of the Local Spiritual Assembly in London, the telegram announcing the death of `Abdu'l-Baha by his sister, Bahiyyih Khanum, arrived at Tudor Pole's home in London and it was there read by Shoghi Effendi.

In 1922 he began a long association with a project aimed at relieving the oppression the Bolsheviks on religionists in Russia. (See also Baha'i Faith in Turkmenistan.) Returning to his searches through the Middle East, Tudor Pole aided in the modern day identification of the site of the ancient Boukoleon Palace, also known as the House of Justinian. Following Shoghi Effendi's leadership of the Baha'i Faith, and the change in style and priorities of the leadership of the religion, Tudor Pole could not leave behind his spiritualist involvements and his involvement in the religion ebbed. In 1959 Tudor Pole founded a group preserving the Chalice Well and Bride's Mound of Glastonbury, England.

Tudor Pole wrote several books investigating spiritualist approaches to faith and the meaning of the times until his death in 1968. Works relating to him continued to be published after his death.

Writings

  • Private Dowding -The personal story of a soldier killed in battle was first published in August 1917, and then through six editions by 1966. In it Tudor Pole presents the case that war, and the Great War in particular, are spiritually driven events geared to prove the impotence of materialism. The book also tells of the conditions of life after death.
  • Abdu'l-Baha Abbas and the Baha'i Faith in Light (London) 70 (Dec. 1950): pp. 347–51.
  • Recollection of a Healing Incident: Sequel to 'Abdu'l-Baha Abbas and the Baha'i Faith in Light (London) 71 (Feb. 1951): pp. 398–400.
  • Michael: Prince of Heaven, Captain of the Angelic Hosts (Pamphlet) by Robert Morton Nance; Howard Jewell; Wellesley Tudor Pole; Margaret Thornley Segal; Frank Retallack; Robert Morton Nance and Neville Coventry, Publisher: J.M. Watkins - 1951, ISBN B000EGLX5Q
  • The Upper Room with Commentary is about a mystic experience of visiting the Upper Room of Christian reference.
  • The Silent Road Published in London by Neville Spearman, 1960.
  • A Man Seen Afar Written with Rosamond Lehmann in 1965, it retells events in the life of Jesus Christ pondering the importance of everyday experiences he may have had inspired by a conversation in 1917 between Tudor Pole and another British officer about World War I and its probable aftermath on the eve of a battle. In places it amplifies and elsewhere contradicts the Gospel accounts but is written to produce a kind of shock, as of fuller recognition of the events and import of the life of Jesus.
  • The Messenger of Chalice Well is a newsletter Tudor Pole began publishing around 1967.
  • Writing On The Ground a sequel to A Man seen Afar written in 1968, the year of his death.
  • My Dear Alexias which is a compilation of letters Tudor Pole sent to Rosamond Lehmann she published in 1979.

    • Mentioned in other books

    Some of his contributions to history and humanity are referenced in The Story of the Divine Plan - Taking place during and immediately following World War I and is mentioned extensively in The Servant, the General and Armageddon (ISBN 0853984247). Sir George Trevelyan: memories and observations mentions his close friendship with and actions on behalf of Tudor Pole. A biography The Two Worlds of Wellesley Tudor Pole by Gerry Fenge is being published on the internet and covers 1884 to 1931.

    References

    Wellesley Tudor Pole Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA