Quakers come from such diverse backgrounds and many have achieved things in their lives that others never get to learn about. As Quakers we believe that the grace of God is evidenced in people’s lives and we wish to give thanks for it.
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Matilda Popper (1930 – 2005) |
Matilda, notable for her
forthrightness and determination, was a member of Swansea Quaker meeting for over forty years
and served the Society of Friends loyally at national, regional and local levels. She was
a member of the national committee of Quaker Social Responsibility and Education for several
years, served as clerk of South Wales area meeting and was clerk
of Swansea meeting twice. Convent educated though she was, her husband reports that her first
attendances at Quaker meetings for worship in early adult life felt like a conversion experience for her.
Throughout her later life she retained a powerful sense of Christ’s central importance to her
and from time to time expressed sadness that this was not a general experience of members of the Society
of Friends of the present day.
Matilda’s early life had a
deep impact on her adult personality. Growing up in the London area, she was profoundly affected
by the death of her father when she was only five, an event |
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which plunged the family from considerable
apparent affluence into poverty. Later, Matilda married Hans Popper, a refugee to Britain after
Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938, and together they adopted three daughters of different
ethnic and racial backgrounds, creating a family that was of central importance to her. She was
deeply loved in her turn.
Matilda was a voracious reader and a considerable diarist and contributed to the national Mass
Observation project. She remained more sensitive than most to the plight of the poor and
dispossessed. She was a committed worker for Oxfam from her arrival in Swansea, working
in its shop on a regular basis and finding therein satisfying material for her colourful and idiosyncratic
adornment. She was one of the founder members of the national Housewives Register and set
up a local group in Swansea. In later life, she took great pleasure in learning Spanish, using it in
to explore her interest in religious architecture. |
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Ron Johns (1928 – 2007) |
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Ron was a Swansea boy through and through but, with
his wife, Jean, he provided a home environment for a succession of overseas students, the resulting
enduring friendships giving him an international outlook despite his living his whole life in Swansea.
He worked hard for particular causes which advanced understanding between ethnically
diverse people or improved the material lot of people in the developing world. With Jean,
whom he first met when volunteering with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade, he was active in the
International Friendship Circle from its earliest days in Swansea and was involved in the Wales-China
link from its inception. In the final phase of his life, he worked with real dedication for Tools
for Self Reliance. He had a strong sense of his local community, too, and worked indefatigably for
the Vivian Hall in Blackpill, helping with urgent and extensive refurbishments for this neighbourhood
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meeting place.
Ron was a Quaker for some thirty years and for the whole of
that time his practical skills were used for the benefit of Swansea meeting. An electrician
by trade, he was often at work in the meeting house, carrying out all manner of repairs and
improvements. Ron’s deep identification with the meeting revealed itself in the way
he endured the inconvenience of being on constant call for emergencies, even middle-of-the-night break-ins
at the meeting house. He was also a long-term valued member of the Property and
Finance committee of South Wales area meeting. Meeting for Worship held an important place
in his life and in many ways Ron regarded local Quakers as family.
Ron was driven by levels of certainty that could be experienced by others as inflexibility.
He was not always easy to work with, but he could be spontaneously tender too
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Winifred Cuthill (1909 – 2006) |
In her long old age, Winifred inspired such enormous
affection in people, including children, that it is hard to achieve a balanced picture of
her whole life. As she aged, an abrasive streak in her gentled, allowing her to develop
further her gift for quiet support and listening, in which she displayed great kindness,
intelligence and stamina. A member of Swansea Quaker meeting for some fifty years, she
served the Society in many capacities, being for a while clerk of Swansea meeting and an elder.
She was a representative at the World Conference of Friends in North Carolina in 1967
which proved to be an important spiritual catalyst for her. A vegetarian for most of her
life, she had a deep concern for animal welfare.
Winifred’s instinct for identifying and supporting people who were troubled in some way
grew from the losses and difficulties | |
she had experienced in her own life. She
grew up in Lancashire, child of South Walian parents, her father a non conformist minister.
She was orphaned in her mid teens. She entered into what proved to be a deeply
loving marriage with Ronald Cuthill whom she first met in her work as an optician and with him
she underwent the hardships of conscientious objection in wartime, Ronald being dismissed from
his post of college principal and going to prison and Winifred herself going three tribunals. Winifred
was widowed young, was in fact a widow for fifty years. She felt
Ronald’s loss deeply and in an enduring way but the love and self-belief she had come to
know with him warmed and fired her to the end.
In Swansea in the later part of her long life, her sense of the guidance of the Spirit was a
most powerful and observable force. |
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Sean O’Kelly (1924 – 2007) |
In his unassuming way, Sean O’Kelly was a real strength
to Swansea Quaker meeting both spiritually and practically. As an elder, he was
courageous when he thought action was necessary, having a clear sense of what helped meeting
for worship achieve its still centre. He was most committed in his upholding of the small
group of worshippers at nearby Neath meeting, attending regularly every month over many years.
He wrote a short account of the notable history of that meeting which is about to be
incorporated into its new website.
In practical matters, Sean showed a great capacity for long-term committed work on behalf of
the Society. He was for many years Swansea meeting’s hard-working lettings clerk,
helping the meeting house be in extensive use by deserving groups. He offered a
remarkable degree of personal friendship to those who used the meeting house. For
example, he had a sense of the nuances of Islam and gave particular support to a non orthodox
group that had experienced difficulty in finding a base. He was Swansea Meeting’s
treasurer for over thirty years and was assistant clerk for membership for South Wales
area meeting for many a long year.
Sean worked for the West Glamorgan Fire Service as Senior Fire Control Operator. On
retirement he became the loving carer of his wife, Nancy, who was severely disabled with
rheumatoid arthritis. After her death, beside | |
his extensive activity for the Society,
much of it unobtrusive, he did voluntary work for three different organisations, the most
long-term being with the Claimants’ Union. He helped people with claiming of benefits
and supported them throughout appeals procedures. He had a talent for empathising with
all sorts of people. Although forty years a member of Swansea Meeting, Sean retained a
clear sense of what had formed him in earlier life. He had grown up a Catholic in Ireland
where his parents were active in the IRA in the Troubles until the Treaty in 1923 which led to
the creation of the Free State. His father stayed on in the Free State army. Sean
himself came to Britain to join the RAF taking part in the Berlin airlift at the start of the
Cold War. He came to the Society of Friends in the early nineteen fifties, some of the
publicity at the time of celebration of three hundred years of Quakerism drawing his attention
to the existence of a way of worship and of living that he came to find deeply congenial.
Sean, even in his eightieth year, in all weathers, was one of the most loyal supporters
over eighteen months of the Quaker weekly Vigil for Peace outside Swansea meeting house through
the active phases of engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He
was a deeply kind and understanding man, with an irreverent sense of humour. He retained
his capacity for delight to the end. |
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