The story of the nursing home is taken up by Susan Golden Kilford (Killie) who knew Grace Challis for many years:

“It was in 1923 that I first heard the word Bahá’í mentioned. My friend Dr Entwaite and myself had returned from South Africa the previous autumn and owing to the great slump and the necessity to find jobs for demobilised soldiers after World War I, we could not get back into office life in London. We decided to take a small drapery business as I had some knowledge of the trade and in the spring of 1923 found what we were looking for in the three small villages of West Moors, East Dorset. Close by was an empty house called Ferndown Lodge, and after we had been a few months at the shop, it was taken as a small private Nursing Home for TB patients. One or two patients who were well enough came in and out of the shop; but no one mentioned the religion of which the owner of the Home, Grace Challis, was a member.” (9)

Grace would have found the early years of running her own nursing home difficult. It appears that in order to fill the nursing home, thereby giving it the air of a successful and credible home she offered places there to Bahá’ís on a reduced rate. In August 1925, not long before he passed away in November of that year, Dr Esslemont wrote to George Simpson, an early British Bahá’í and member of the NSA of the British Isles: “I asked Sister C. recently how finances were and she told me that at present her expenditure on the Home is considerably in excess of the income. She had a good time in the Spring which gave her a balance on which she has since been drawing, but she has also had to use a small private income in order to make ends meet.” Dr Esslemont continues in his letter to intimate that Grace was charging one of the Persian Bahá’ís a much reduced rate, her rooms were not all full and she had taken other patients at a discounted rate. He suggests that the London Bahá’í group might like to contribute towards the Persian TB patient’s treatment and that the Bournemouth Group might also give a little help, adding “Sister Challis is doing such fine work for the Cause that I think she deserves all the help and encouragement we can give her.” (10)

A month later Dr Esslemont wrote to George Simpson again noting that the Persian patient was much better and was “steadily recuperating. I am glad the London friends contributed the £10. Last letter I had from Sister Challis, she told me that several applications had come and there seemed a good prospect of her being able to fill her vacant rooms.” (11)

So it appears that Grace had sufficient business acumen to realise that an empty nursing home was unlikely to attract patients and that it was a good idea to take patients at a subsidised rate in the early stages in order to fill rooms. Also the subsidies from the London and Bournemouth friends must have helped.

It is interesting to note that Dr Esslemont refers to Grace as “Sister Challis” as well as “Nurse Challis”. David Hofman later remarked that Grace had been Dr Esslemont’s head nurse and “supervisor” at the Home Sanatorium, so she seems to have been in a position of authority at the Home Sanatorium and may well have been styled “Sister” before she took on her own establishment, but certainly after she started her nursing home in Ferndown Lodge she was always known as “Sister” Challis. (12)

Grace was busy not only tending to her patients and building up her nursing home but also in serving the Faith. Killie resumes the story:

“One Saturday evening a man I knew came into the shop and asked me if I knew what a Bahá’í meeting was and went on to say that one of these meetings was to be held at Ferndown Lodge next day and a special train was to bring Bournemouth people to it. When I discredited the idea of the Southern Railway receiving a special train for this meeting my disgruntled friend rushed off to bring me the late edition of the Bournemouth Echo in which there was a small paragraph which ran:

‘The usual Sunday meeting of the Bournemouth Bahá’ís will this week take place at Ferndown Lodge W. Moors, and a convenient train leaves Bournemouth West at 4 o’clock. Tea 4.30 Meeting 5 p.m. All Welcome.’

“Any passengers coming for the meeting on that train would have to pass our house and we were curious enough to watch – one lady passed and as we strolled up the road we saw Grace Challis welcome the lone lady (Miss Cheesman) with a kiss before they went into the house. I should not have thought any more about it had not Sister Challis come into our shop the next day and I asked her what the name Bahá’í stood for. She was in a hurry so told me very little, but she invited me to come to the next Sunday meeting at her house. I did not go, but in the course of a week or so she sent me a card of invitation to attend a meeting at which Dr Esslemont was to be the speaker. I accepted and went. I found myself one of a company of eight or ten people and the atmosphere was a warm friendly one. Sister Challis served tea, her sweet face and gentle manner made me feel at ease.” (13)

Dr Esslemont also mentions that Sister Challis set aside a room at the nursing home especially for Bahá’ís. (14) Dr Esslemont visited Ferndown Lodge several times before he left for Haifa. In a letter he wrote to George Simpson in January 1924 he remarked that while he was staying with Mrs Fry in Verwood, Dorset “Ruhi and I walked to West Moors (5 miles) yesterday afternoon to see Mrs George who is at Sister Challis’s for this week and next.” (15)

In the April-June 1925 issue of Bahá’í World Fellowship magazine there is a column concerning “Grace Challis’ Sanitarium [sic]. Dorset, England”:
“Another beautiful activity is in the Home of our Bahá’í sister, Miss Grace Challis, who has formerly assisted Dr. Esslemont in his Sanitarium in Bournemouth. When Dr. Esslemont gave up this work to follow more closely in the path of the Kingdom, Miss Challis felt urged to continue to heal the physical diseases, while pointing out to the patients the spiritual way to happiness and life. In her sweet way our sister writes: ‘I came to West Moors from Bournemouth nearly two years ago. I was the only Bahá’í, but I knew it was at the Master’s call that I was led and enabled to start this little Home. Right from the first it was dedicated to His Service, and then He sent Louie Yates to me as a patient, and together we prayed and tried to spread the teachings.

“I usually have about eight patients here, some rather ill and others at convalescent stage. I want to call this the “Garden of Healing” because my whole desire is that it should be a place of healing for spirit, soul and body. Physical healing does not always come. God sometimes prepares His children by healing their spirits for service beyond – but spiritual healing is open to all who will receive it from the Great Healer, and I pray earnestly that all who enter this Home may partake of that healing! We hold weekly Bahá’í meetings, and we have some happy times. The patients, who are up, love to come, and all are deeply interested, also others from the village come, sometimes friends from Bournemouth, which is eight miles away, come over and we have united meetings in the garden when the weather permits. We have had the privilege of having Friends from London to visit us and to speak at the Sunday meetings. Dr. Esslemont has been here several times. He first introduced me to the Bahá’í Teachings. Then Mrs. George, of Chelsea, comes, and sometimes Mrs. Slade. This unity and love are great outstanding features of the Bahá’í Revelation, and one longs for all to share in it. May we all be pure, willing channels through which our dear Master may pour His blessing on others. It is for us to faithfully scatter the seed – and our beloved Master will see that in His own time it will spring up and bear fruit. In the power of the Holy Spirit all things are possible – “and as we have faith so shall our powers and blessings be.’ ”

“Note: This is a Bahá’í Home, and our sister invites the traveling Friends to sojourn with her. The love-task she has undertaken is glorious, and any aid, or news from the Gardens will cheer her heart and help her in her glorious work for suffering humanity. Our prayers will help her, too.” (16)

Killie comments that during “the early days at West Moors, Sister Challis had many wonderful Bahá’í visitors and as her bedrooms were taken up by patients she often made use of the spare room in our house. Amongst the most beloved of these was dear Martha Root and her secretary Dulcie Turnbull.” (17) There exists a photograph of Sister Challis seated next to Martha Root in the garden of Ferndown Lodge surrounded by smiling friends and a number of children.

Another Bahá’í visitor was Effie Baker from Australia who served for 11 years at the western pilgrim house in Haifa:

“Following several exciting weeks in London Effie travelled to West Moors, Dorset, to visit Sister Grace Challis at Ferndown Lodge, ten miles distant from Bournemouth, where she treated tuberculosis sufferers. Both Effie and Margaret Stevenson became good friends with Sister Challis. In Bournemouth in the first week of June Effie met London Bahá’ís Nancy Musgrove and Mr Coles, with whom she drove to see New Forest. She also attended a 19 day feast and a Bahá’í meeting on the lawn at which Mrs George spoke. Together with Grace, Effie spent some time gathering wild flowers before returning to London on June 8.” (18)

All this Bahá’í activity did not go unnoticed in the village of West Moors. Killie writes:

“I remember the local clergyman calling on me when Sister Challis first opened her Nursing Home. He was very fussed and annoyed because she had some “queer religion”. I was not a Bahá’í at the time but had seen enough of Grace Challis to know that whatever her religion might be, she lived it every day of her life. Her home was full of joy and happiness in spite of all the suffering being borne by her patients. Years later I met that clergyman again and he said ‘I don’t care what her religious views are, Sister Challis is one of God’s saints.’ ” 1(9)

It was in 1927 or 1928 that Sister Challis moved her nursing home to the village of Broadstone just outside Bournemouth. Killie describes one of Sister Challis’s many acts of kindness:

“Sister Challis moved to a larger house at Broadstone and offered me to put my caravan in her extensive grounds. Just as I was about to take a post in Bucks, Sister had a blind and TB gentleman come as a patient and she begged me to take him over and act as his secretary nurse companion. This I did, and in trying to make this poor broken man happy I regained my own health thanks to the loving care of Sister Challis.” (20)

The nursing home in Blandford Road, Broadstone was a larger building with a much bigger garden, so we can deduce that her business was now doing well. She named the new nursing home “Rizwan”. The Bahá’í activities continued at Rizwan and the stream of Bahá’í visitors continued unabated. Killie relates:

“During those years many distinguished Bahá’í visitors stayed at “Rizwan” the name given to her Home at Broadstone by Shoghi Effendi. As Sister was always very busy with her patients it fell to me to entertain her visitors to a great extent and I learned a great deal about the wider aspects of the Faith from such wonderful teachers and lecturers as Mrs Mary Hanford Ford of New York, Miss Louise Drake Wright of Bastore, USA, Mrs Elizabeth Cowles of Montreal, Miss Effie Baker of Haifa who kept the European Pilgrim House on Mount Carmel until the Guardian’s marriage, and many others.” (21)

Killie also relates that Mrs George of London (Mother George) “was often at “Rizwan” and was much loved and liked as a speaker at Sunday meetings held in summer on Sister’s large lawn.” (22)

In addition to Bahá’í meetings for adults Sister Challis also ran children’s classes at Rizwan. The newsletter Mashriqu’l-Adhkar c.1927 has a list of “Gardens” or children’s classes around the world and lists a class with the title “Healing” run by Miss Grace Challis in Broadstone. (23)

Sister Challis was elected to the NSA of the British Isles for the first time in 1924 in a by- election. Dr Esslemont had gone to live in Scotland for three months after the Home Sanatorium closed down and the Bournemouth friends elected Sister Challis in his place. (The system of elections for the NSA was different in those days.) In a letter dated December 1924 to George Simpson written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi Dr Esslemont comments on “Sister Challis, new member of NSA”. (24)

An example of the system of NSA elections occurred in 1926: “…the Assembly agreed that when the delegates elected the nine regular members of the National Assembly each year they should also elect an equal number of substitute members who in the absence of the regular members could attend the meetings and have the right of speaking and voting…Bournemouth elected Sister Challis with a Miss Kilford [Killie] as substitute.” (25)

She served on the NSA, frequently as its chairman and also as its secretary, throughout the rest of the 1920s and 1930s. Killie gives us an insight into Sister Challis’s devoted services on the NSA:

“She was the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly for some years, and the NSA of that time used to meet roughly once a month. All the week before all NSA meetings Grace would be arranging the work of the Home so as to give the nurses the least trouble during her day in London. If everything was in order by the time the taxi came to take her to Poole Railway Station she would go off quite happy in the faith that as she was going on the business of Bahá’u’lláh, He would take care of her patients during her absence. Nothing ever went awry while she was gone, but once she was prevented from going by an upset of hysteria of a patient and the taxi was sent away. Grace was quite calm and said that for some reason Bahá’u’lláh did not wish her to go. She was right – later in the day another patient had a fatal haemorrhage and died in ten minutes.” (26)

She also served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Bournemouth for many years, frequently as its secretary. According to Killie:
“The Bournemouth group at that time consisted of Sister Challis – Secretary; Mr King – Treasurer; Mr Lane, Mr and Mrs Forrest, Mrs King, Miss Pinchon, Miss Cheesman, and myself. Sunday meetings were held at “Rizwan” Broadstone and Local Spiritual Assembly meetings at Mr King’s house in Bournemouth. Public Meetings were held at the Town Hall, Bournemouth when such speakers as Mrs Mary Hanford Ford drew large audiences.” (27)

David Hofman recounted some of his memories of Sister Challis:
“She was chairman of the NSA for two years (when I came over in 1936). She was a wonderful woman, always wore nurse’s uniform and she was absolutely dedicated and was always reading prayers.” (28)

In every photograph available to us we see Sister Challis wearing her nurse’s uniform with the “veil” type of headdress, looking not only saintly but very imposing. In early photographs her headdress is light in colour while in later photographs it is dark, giving the appearance of a nun’s habit.

Her Bahá’í activities were not confined to Dorset or to NSA meetings, however. She seems to have been a regular visitor at Walmar House, London where she was happy to address audiences:
“The Wednesday evening meetings at Walmar House continued with outside speakers and a small number of new faces who joined the audience. … Monday afternoon prayer meetings were held consistently at four o’clock …The Young People’s Study Class also met regularly, Holy Days were commemorated, and informal afternoon teas included addresses from Lady Blomfield and Sister Challis.” (29)

In May 1930 she received a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi inviting her to visit Haifa on pilgrimage. (30) It’s not known whether she did go on pilgrimage but she later gave a photo album to Killie containing a collection of photographs and postcards of Haifa and ‘Akká taken in the 1930s and this seems to indicate that she might have gone. A Greatest Name and a silver coin blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were presented to Sister Challis by Shoghi Effendi but it is not known when she received these. (31)

She certainly met Shoghi Effendi several times. In September 1920 he stayed at the Home Sanatorium for a few days and she would have met him if she was already working there. In July 1921 Shoghi Effendi stayed for about two weeks at the Home Sanatorium so she would definitely have met him on that occasion and in December 1921 after the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Shoghi Effendi was invited to stay a few days with Dr Esslemont in Bournemouth, trying to recover from the shock of the Master’s passing. (32)

Sister Challis resigned from the NSA in the early years of World War II. Killie records that during the war most of Sister Challis’s staff had had to go elsewhere for wartime duties so this left her almost alone to carry on running the nursing home. “When war broke out in 1939 her staff had been absorbed in war duties, so with a house and huts full of patients Grace was left to carry on more or less alone. The strain of that awful five years undermined her health.” (33) Also around this time she succumbed to tuberculosis, so continuing to run the nursing home would have been a tremendous strain for her.

In the summer of 1948 she entered the Brompton Hospital, London, a hospital renowned for treating patients with tuberculosis. It seems she hoped to see some of her family and old friends in London during her last days but sadly she died there on 23 October 1948 aged 66. Her Bahá’í funeral took place in the cemetery at Bromley-By-Bow conducted by Mrs Slade and Dr Lutfu’llah Hakim. She had made her will in 1933 and nominated her brother Frank to be her executor. She left a gross estate of £5580, a considerable amount of money in those days. After tax the money was divided equally between her sisters Edith, Dorothy, Maude and Joan and her brothers Frank and Bernard. She bequeathed her gold wristlet watch to her sister Edith. (34)

Her obituary was published in the British Bahá’í Journal in January 1949 and described her as “one of [the British Bahá’í community’s] best beloved believers whose pure and radiant example has made many converts to the Faith.” It summarised her many achievements and services to the Faith and quoted one of her favourite utterances of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

“Turn your faces away from the contemplation of your own finite selves, and fix your eyes upon the Everlasting Radiance; then will your souls receive in full measure the Divine Power of the Spirit and the Blessings of the Infinite Bounty”.

It concluded that Grace Challis’s life was lived in fulfilment of that promise. (35)

Her services to the Faith speak for themselves: her long and dedicated service on the NSA, her membership of the Bournemouth LSA, her public talks, her Bahá’í children’s classes and her warm invitations to the local community to join the fellowship she offered at meetings in her homes. The last word should go to Killie who knew her so well:

“I had lived five years in the Nursing Home of Grace Challis and in all that time I knew her for the saintly woman she was. She lived her life day and night for her patients and drew her strength day by day from God to enable her to carry on… The example of the selfless life of Grace Challis is ever before me. She lived her life in the service of God, in her devotion to those suffering patients and when anyone died (as so many did) she took them to the very gate of the Other Side.” (36)

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles, 1939
Back row L to R: Hasan Balyuzi, David Hofman, Marguerite Wellby, Alfred Sugar, Arthur Norton.
Seated L to R: Constance Langdon-Davies, Grace Challis, Mrs K.V. Brown, Joe Lee

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