These notes were found in the papers of Katherine (Villiers-Stuart) Chauhan after she passed away in Bunbury, Western Australia in 2004. They relate to a talk she gave to the Bahá’í Youth of Perth, WA, in 2001  and were forwarded to CommuNIqué (newsletter of the Bahá’í Council for Northern Ireland) by her sister Sally Liya. 

I was born in Greenisland, Northern Ireland, the youngest of four children. My family were Church of Ireland. Every Sunday morning we used to go to church and Sunday School. It was the review of George Townshend’s book The Promise of All Ages in the local newspaper that my mother (Jane Villiers-Stuart) read in 1949 and which struck a chord with her. A chance meeting with a Bahá’í pioneer, Ursula Newman, on the ferry to England took place around the time I was born and so began her investigation in earnest until she declared as a Bahá’í in 1953.

As a child I used to attend meetings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and remember catching the train and cycling in a line behind mum on Sunday afternoon to attend a meeting. There were very few Bahá’í children, so I remember only one children’s class ever taking place. I attended my first summer school in Wales, when I was about eight years old and went fairly regularly after that. The first weekend schools in the British Isles were held in Belfast Castle in 1956 and 1957. The first Irish Summer School was held in the Mourne Mountains. There was a small group of very loving and united Bahá’ís who were totally dedicated to the Faith.

When I was 11, I attended the first Bahá’í World Congress in London in 1963 which was very exciting. For a few days we were in a different world of love. It was a great treat to meet my Malaysian pen-friend’s two brothers who had travelled to London specially to attend. Other outstanding travels were to the dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship near Frankfurt, Germany, by ferry and train in 1964, several German and Swiss winter schools, and by sailing boat to the Palermo (Italy) Conference in 1968, which was followed by a visit to the Bahá’í World Centre with about 1,000 other Bahá’ís who had attended the conference. We all actually walked up the stairway of the kings from the base of Mount Carmel, Israel, to the Shrine of the Báb.

I also remember the first Persian Baha’i men to pioneer to Northern Ireland. They were from a Zoroastrian background and were determined to fit in. They completed their education, married Irish girls and now their children are the very active Bahá’í youth.

In 1969 Bill Sears, a Hand of the Cause of God, visited the UK. He travelled all over and really galvanised the community. 

I left school and applied for universities in goal towns and was accepted for Dundee, Scotland,  which was a goal town with a university. Four very happy years were spent there, with studies being rather low on the agenda and holidays spent travel-teaching in the Scottish Islands and North Berwick (a goal town). The Spiritual Assembly of Dundee was formed in 1972 and is still strong. That was the year we travel-taught in Europe while attending the Padua (Italy) Youth Conference.

However, my heart was bent on international pioneering. In September 1976 I enrolled in the University of Sri Lanka, Colombo Campus.  To my consternation, when I got there, I found out that the course was not taught through the medium of English.  However, I was able to do a Diploma of Education, with special options in Lifelong Education and Special Education. I was able to sit in on courses for a specialist Diploma course in teaching children with learning/intellectual disabilities. 

I then worked for a year at the Sambodhi Home and School for Handicapped Children and Adults, the largest institution of its kind in Sri Lanka. Apart from teaching in the school, I organised physiotherapy for fourteen physically handicapped children, arranged for children to see orthopaedic doctors and obtain the needed walking aids, and organised recreational activities. Life was sometimes tough in Sri Lanka but I set about it with determination, started learning the country’s language, Sinhala, and made many Sinhalese friends. Those three years were the most productive of my life in serving both the interests of the Faith and the disabled.

In 1985 I met Ashok Chauhan, who had sailed from Carnarvon in Western Australia and was arrested on suspicion of being a Tamil terrorist on arrival!  After months of struggling with the research project to try and finish it, I left Sri Lanka in early 1987 and was married to Ashok in the first Bahá’í wedding in Ballymena in Northern Ireland. My elder daughter, Maya-Rose was born there in 1989, and my younger daughter Asha after we moved to Bunbury, Australia, in 1992. These are the bare bones of my story.

My advice to others – especially the youth – is: be active when you are young, render service while you are studying, study in a goal town or country where Bahá’ís are needed, and go travel teaching on your holidays. Choose subjects to study that will be of service to others. When you are young you are enthusiastic, optimistic and adaptable – you can sleep on the floor and try all sorts of food and adapt to different cultures. You are not limited by the many inhibitions of older people so you happily go in and get things done. Mistakes are made but you learn from them and the achievements usually overshadow them. You have time to pray to be guided by divine inspiration and to be ‘unrestrained as the wind’ and closer to God.

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Katherine’s daughters, Maya-Rose and Asha, lovingly ask to get in touch if you remember Katherine. She is still sorely missed and we would love to connect with anyone in the UK who remembers our mum fondly and wishes to share memories with us. Thank you.

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Maya-Rose Chauhan

Perth, Western Australia

December 2023

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