On 16 February 2001, around 400 people from all over the United Kingdom gathered at Baden Powell House in South Kensington, London for a national memorial service for Philip Hainsworth, prolific writer, lecturer and for many years, perhaps the most prominent member of the Bahá’í faith in Britain. 

Hainsworth died on 16 December 2001 at the age of 82. The holding of the service at the headquarters of the scouting organisation was an appropriate one - Hainsworth’s passion for internationalism had been born when, as a teenage scout, he had been called to represent Bradford at the coronation of King George VI.

A committed pacifist, after hearing about the Bahá’í  principles for the first time in 1938, Hainsworth dedicated his life to promoting its ideals of world citizenship and the eradication of prejudice.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was the first Bahá’í to register in the British Armed Forces.

Seeking exemption from being involved in the taking of life, he was summoned to appear before a tribunal in Leeds. His statement that he had renounced absolute pacifism in favour of Bahá’í ideas advocating justice and the nation’s right to defend itself impressed the tribunal which granted him exemption from combatant service. Prior to his release from the Medical Corps in 1946, Hainsworth spent five weeks in Haifa, then in Palestine, to study first-hand from the then leader of the Bahá’í faith, the Oxford-educated Shoghi Effendi Rabbani.

Returning to England, Hainsworth moved to Nottingham to help establish the first Bahá’í group there. He was appointed to responsible positions in a number of national Bahá’í committees and in 1947, was elected to the faith’s national governing body. In 1951, Hainsworth was among the first group of Bahá’ís to settle in Uganda. Today the faith has around 105, 000 members there.

He returned to England in 1966 for his children’s education and was reelected to the national Bahá’í governing body. In the 1980s, Hainsworth wrote a number of ground-breaking introductory works including The Bahá’í Faith (with Mary Perkins) published by Ward Lock, which became an established text book in schools. Bahá’í Focus on Human Rights and Bahá’í Focus on Peace are also valuable resource materials.

From the 1970s through to last spring, he was a familiar and well-loved figure at national Bahá’í events. Though often forthright in public discussion, he was, on a personal basis, a hugely generous and kind-hearted man whose vast experience and knowledge inspired generations of people.
His encyclopaedic knowledge of United Nations resolutions and conventions became particularly useful during the period of persecutions of the Bahá’ís in Iran following the 1979 revolution.

Hainsworth was involved in a number of delegations to Westminster and the European Parliament, and in other efforts to defend the rights of his brethren in the faith’s homeland. He was also a well-received and admired speaker at meetings including in the House of Lords. His genuine love for humanity and his desire to see justice established in the world led to involvement with the One World Trust, the World Federalists, and early interfaith work.

Just a few months before his passing, Hainsworth received a hero’s welcome in Uganda where he and his family celebrated the 50th anniversary of his work there.

RW