The Baháʼí Faith in the United Kingdom started in 1898 when Mrs. Mary Thornburgh-Cropper (d. 1938), an American by birth, became the first adherent of the Baháʼí Faith in England. Through the 1930s, the number of Baháʼís in the United Kingdom grew, leading to a pioneer movement beginning after the Second World War with sixty percent of the British Baháʼí community eventually relocating. At the 2021 UK Census, there were 4,725 Baháʼís in England and Wales, making it the 17th largest religion, a decline of 6% compared to the 2011 UK Census, when there were 5,021 Baháʼís in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland, there were 281 Baháʼís recorded in the 2021 census.
History
Earliest phase Scholar Moojan Momen has identified the first account in the West as being January 8, 1845 as an exchange of British diplomatic reports not published in the newspapers. This was an account of the first Letter of the Living to be sent on a mission by the Báb, whom Baháʼís accept as a precursor of their religion. He was the second Letter of the Living and first Babí martyr, Mullá ʻAlí-i-Bastámí. These exchanges were between Sir Henry Rawlinson who wrote first to Sir Stratford Canning. Follow-up exchanges continued through to April 1846 where diplomatic records of events end. Ottoman state archives affirm his arrival in Istanbul where he is then sentenced to serve in the naval ship yards at hard labor - the Ottoman ruler refusing to banish him as it would be "difficult to control his activities and prevent him spreading his false ideas."
The first newspaper/public reference to the religious movement began with coverage of the Báb which occurred in The Times on 1 November 1845 which relied on Muslim reactions to the new religion. This newspaper account was echoed many times in local and far distant newspapers into early 1846 as far away as New Zealand.
In later 1852 into 1853 there was an event which caused great suffering on Babís. The Babís were blamed for an attempted assassination of the Shah of Persia. Recent scholarship has identified a fringe element distinct from all the major aspects of the religion, its community and leadership at the time.The Attempted Assassination of Nasir al Din Shah in 1852: Millennialism and Violence, by Moojan Momen, 2004-03-23 Nevertheless, coverage in newspapers at the time often echoed the Persian government's view blaming the Babís and Babís in large numbers were in fact executed as a result, however as the months dragged on reports of the deaths of large numbers of Babis progress from hundreds in Tehran by early of November, 1852, to tens of thousands in the south of the country by late December.
There was then a British mission in Tehran, Persia, and it reported on the events regarding Bábism during that period and after Baháʼu'lláh's banishment to Baghdad. The British consul-general of Baghdad offered him British citizenship and offered to arrange for a residence for him in India or any place he wished. Baháʼu'lláh refused the offer. After being further banished from Baghdad, Baháʼu'lláh wrote a specific letter or "tablet" addressed to Queen Victoria commenting favourably on the British parliamentary system and commending the Queen for the fact that her government had ended slavery in the British Empire. She, in response to the tablet, is reported to have said, though the original record is lost, that "If this is of God, it will endure; if not, it can do no harm."
In 1879, on the developing trade relations Dutchman Johan Colligan entered into partnership with two Baháʼís, Haji Siyyid Muhammad-Hasan and Haji Siyyid Muhammad-Husayn, who were known as the King and Beloved of Martyrs. These two Baháʼís were arrested and executed because the Imám-Jum'ih at the time owed them a large sum of money for business relations and instead of paying them would confiscate their property. Their execution was committed despite Colligan's testifying to their innocence. He did manage to motivate Persian merchants to defend their innocence and there was a brief respite in their suffering which was witnessed by Edward Slack then serving in the British Bengal civil service, memoirs of which he published in 1882.
In addition to such coverage, Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University produced significant materials on the history of the religion and in April 1890 was granted four interviews with Baháʼu'lláh after he had arrived in the area of Akka and left the only detailed description by a Westerner.
After Mrs. Mary Thornburgh-Cropper became a Baháʼí in 1898, the second person and the first native person to become a Baháʼí was Miss Ethel Rosenberg (d.1930), in the summer of 1899. The formal declaration of Miss Sarah Ann Ridgway is evidenced in her letter of November 1899. Sarah or 'Annie' as she referred to herself in letters and her immigration documents had travelled from Salford, UK, to work in North America. She was a silk weaver who met Abdul Baha in Liverpool and in London in 1912. She died in Salford Royal Hospital and was buried in a pauper's grave before Manchester friends were aware of her demise. Dr. Frederick D'Evelyn was an Irishman from Belfast who moved to the United States and became a Baháʼí in 1901 and who served on the forerunner to the United States Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly. Another distinguished Baháʼí was Lady Blomfield, second wife to architect Sir Arthur Blomfield. Lady Blomfield was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles for eight years, an accomplished author, and a humanitarian who assisted in founding the Save the Children Fund and the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child and its adoption by the League of Nations; she joined the religion in 1907. Other noteworthy people who became early members of the religion included George Townshend (an Irishman, but Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom) and Scotsman John Esslemont.
Pre First World War Other mentions of the Baháʼí Faith included the Archdeacon Wilberforce mentioning the religion in a sermon at the Church of St. John in Westminster in March 1911. Due to this mention, great interest was generated, and a Baháʼí reading room was opened.
In 1910, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the Baháʼí Faith, embarked on a three-year journey to Egypt, Europe, and North America, spreading the Baháʼí message. During his travels, he visited England in the autumn of 1911. On September 10 he made his first public appearance before an audience at the City Temple, London, with the English translation spoken by Wellesley Tudor Pole. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to the British Isles, visiting Baháʼís in Liverpool, London, Edinburgh, Oxford, and Bristol in 1912–13. See ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West.
In 1914, the Baháʼís present in England had organised themselves into a committee, though it lapsed after February 1916. Also the co-editor of the Encyclopaedia Biblica, Thomas Kelly Cheyne, became a member of the religion by 1914, though he was to die the next year.
After his last return to Palestine ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned various lands around the world that the religion should be introduced to and referred to WWI and qualities of those who seek to serve the religion. This took the form of a these series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916-1917; these letters were compiled together in the book Tablets of the Divine Plan. The seventh of the tablets mentioned European regions. It was written on April 11, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919—after the end of the First World War and the Spanish flu. The seventh tablet was translated and presented on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919 and mentioned the islands. He says: "Therefore, O ye believers of God! Show ye an effort and after this war spread ye the synopsis of the divine teachings in the British Isles, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, San Marino, Balearic Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, Malta, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides and Orkney Islands."ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Tablet to the Baháʼís of the United States and Canada, April, 11th, 1916
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 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, which ultimately required General Allenby altering his plans for the prosecution of the war in the Palestine theatre.
Interwar period Following the events of the First World War and the knighting of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá by the British Mandate for Palestine for his humanitarian efforts during the war, the Baháʼí administration for the United Kingdom started to form. In 1921, while Tudor Pole was Secretary of the Baháʼí community in London, the telegram announcing the passing of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá by his sister, Bahíyyih Khánum, arrived at Tudor Pole's home in London, and it was there read by Shoghi Effendi. A Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly for England (also called All-England Baháʼí Council) was set up in May 1922 and held its first meeting in London on 17 June 1922, with the first Local Spiritual Assemblies being formed in London, Manchester and Bournemouth. On 13 October 1923, in London, the National Spiritual Assembly of England came into being; in 1930 this became the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the British Isles. Hasan Balyuzi came to England in 1932 and was immediately elected to the National Assembly. He was annually re-elected until 1960, as well as named a Hand of the Cause in 1957. Local Assemblies were founded in Bradford and Torquay in 1939.
During this time notable Britons who became Baháʼís included Richard St. Barbe Baker - forester, environmental activist, and author - who joined the religion around 1924. Mark Tobey, an American artist who stayed in Britain from 1930–38, held Baháʼí study classes in Dartington Hall in Devon and lectures in Torquay. As a result of this activity two famous artists became Baháʼís: Bernard Leach, the world-famous potter, in about 1940, and Reginald Turvey, a prominent South African painter, in 1936. Also in the 1930s a whole host of activities began - a Baháʼí theatre group was formed in London, the Baháʼí Journal was instituted, Baháʼí summer schools began, and the tradition of a winter Baháʼí conference was established. Local Spiritual Assemblies were then formed in Bradford and Torquay in 1939, while the National Assembly achieved legal standing with its incorporation. John Ferraby became a Baháʼí in 1941 and was named as a Hand of the Cause - the 4th in the nation's history - in 1957. Furthermore, British Baháʼí families moving to Australia helped found the Baháʼí Faith in Australia during the 1920s.
Post Second World War In 1946, a great pioneer movement began implementing the Tablets of the Divine Plan with sixty percent of the British Baháʼí community eventually relocating. It is estimated that between 1951 and 1993, Baháʼís from the United Kingdom settled in 138 countries. Intrantionally this effort would take the Baháʼí Faith to Scotland and Wales and raising the numbers of Local Assemblies in the British Isles from five to twenty-four, among which four being in the large cities of Edinburgh, Belfast, and Cardiff. In 1950-1 the Baha'is of the British Isles pioneered to Tanganyika, Uganda, and Kenya, and in 1953, Baháʼís moved to the Scottish islands, as well as the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.