Ethel Cowan Revell (14 April 1897 - 9 February 1984) - "SAINTLY STEADFAST SELFSACRIFICING PROMOTER CAUSE GOD": Appointed by Shoghi Effendi to the International Baha'i Council as its Western Assistant Secretary; Secretary to the Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land

DEEPLY GRIEVED ANNOUNCE PASSING ETHEL REVELL SAINTLY STEADFAST SELFSACRIFICING PROMOTER CAUSE GOD. BLESSED BY ASSOCIATION ABDULBAHA COURSE HIS VISIT AMERICA AND RECEIPT TABLETS FROM HIM. HER TIRELESS LABOURS STERLING QUALITIES EARNED ADMIRATION SHOGHI EFFENDI WHO APPOINTED HER INTERNATIONAL BAHAI COUNCIL AS ITS WESTERN ASSISTANT SECRETARY. THIS CROWN HER SERVICES CONTINUED MEMBERSHIP ELECTED COUNCIL SUBSEQUENT SERVICES MANY CAPACITIES WORLD CENTRE INCLUDING SECRETARY HANDS HOLY LAND. URGE NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS HER HONOUR IN ALL MASHRIQUL- ADHKARS OTHER CENTRES. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER RADIANT SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.

With these words the Universal House of Justice on 9 February 1984 announced to the Bahá’i world the passing of one who lived her life of dedicated service as though no alternative existed and who would have been amazed to be accorded such accolades.

The Revells were a devout Christian family living in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. U.S.A. The father, Edward, was a weaver, who passed away, after years of illness, in 1900, leaving his forty-one-year-old wife Mary with six young children, though Ethel herself mentions there being eight children in the family. Mary Revell, though tiny in size, was a pillar of strength, possessed of phenomenal courage. Before her husband died, foreseeing the difficulties of her situation, he told her she would never be able to keep all the children with her, but she assured him he need not worry, she would do so; she got employment in a factory and with the assistance of the older children, who valiantly got jobs at an early age, she preserved her home and kept her family together. Ethel’s own employment certificate shows she was fourteen when she went to work; most of her working life she was listed as 'stenographer'. Like her mother, she was small and delicate in build.

Mary Revell and daughters, 1914

Annie McKinney, Mary Revell’s sister, was one of America’s early believers and interested Mary and her daughters, Jessie and Ethel, in the Bahá’í teachings; they attended meetings in 1906 taught by Mrs. Isabella Brittingham, a renowned and erudite Bahá’i, and as a result Mary Revell, Jessie, not yet fifteen, and Ethel, not yet ten, accepted the Faith. Gradually the whole family became Bahá’is and the Revell home became the hub of activities in Philadelphia for many decades. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had a great love for this family, particularly its most distinguished members Mary, Jessie and Ethel, who received a number of Tablets from Him; in one written to Mary Revell in 1908 from the prison-city of ‘Akká He foreshadows His teaching mission to the West: “Thy letter was received and was of the utmost sweetness for it began: ‘O Thou Ensign of Peace and Salvation!’ It is the hope of this imprisoned one to become the cause of Peace and Salvation in the world and summon the inhabitants of the globe to love, kindness, righteousness, uprightness and the adoration of Truth…”

Hasan M. Balyuzi (1908- 1980) – Hand of the Cause; “ONE OF…MOST POWERFUL DEFENDERS MOST RESOURCEFUL HISTORIANS”; “ILLUSTRIOUS LINEAGE”; “DEVOTED LABOURS DIVINE VINEYARD”; “OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORKS; “EXEMPLARY ACHIEVEMENTS”; “STEADFASTNESS PATIENCE HUMILITY”; “OUTSTANDING SCHOLARLY PURSUITS”; Author of Books: Bahá’u’lláh the King of Glory; The Báb; ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, Centre of the Covenant; Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb; Eminent Bahá'ís in the Time of Bahá'u'lláh; Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'i Faith; Muhammad and the Course of Islam

WITH BROKEN HEARTS ANNOUNCE PASSING DEARLY LOVED HAND CAUSE HASAN BALYUZI. ENTIRE BAHAI WORLD ROBBED ONE OF ITS MOST POWERFUL DEFENDERS MOST RESOURCEFUL HISTORIANS. HIS ILLUSTRIOUS LINEAGE HIS DEVOTED LABOURS DIVINE VINEYARD HIS OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORKS COMBINE IN IMMORTALIZING HIS HONOURED NAME IN ANNALS BELOVED FAITH. CALL ON FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS. PRAYING SHRINES HIS EXEMPLARY ACHIEVEMENTS HIS STEADFASTNESS PATIENCE HUMILITY HIS OUTSTANDING SCHOLARLY PURSUITS WILL INSPIRE MANY DEVOTED WORKERS AMONG RISING GENERATIONS FOLLOW HIS GLORIOUS FOOTSTEPS. (Universal House of Justice 12 February 1980)

Hasan Muvaqqar Balyuzi was loved and honoured both in his native Iran and his adopted England, and by virtue of his consistent services in the British Baha'i community for nearly fifty years earned a central role in its history.

A student from his youth, he became in the last decade of his life and in the sight of all the Baha'i world, its pre-eminent scholar, yielding place only to Mirza Abu'lFadl, by whose learning Mr. Balyuzi was himself astonished. He seemed, from his earliest years, a mature and balanced person, as though his gentle yet remarkable qualities were his by birth - an innate courtesy and kindliness, an easy yet dignified bearing, a delightful wit and humour, an appreciation of every effort or service offered by others for the Faith, understanding of apparent frailties of behaviour, seeing beyond these to the longings and pain of human souls, quiet perseverance in fulfilling his own responsibilities, untarnished steadfastness in his loyalty to the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, complete and heartfelt obedience to the Central Figures of the Faith and its Guardian, staunch and knowledgeable support of all the institutions of the Administrative Order - these give but an incomplete portrayal of one whose presence conveyed to those who knew him a sense of well-being, tranquillity and hope.

At the moment of his first meeting, in his youth, with Shoghi Effendi, his inmost being was quickened to the reality of the Guardian's servitude at the Holy Threshold, and his sensitive, receptive spirit became, and ever remained, centred upon the greatness and glory of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah. His life can be understood in no other terms than his striving to serve that Revelation, in whatever course events might take, in health or in sickness, to his closing days in this world, when his utmost longing was to lay his head on the threshold of the Most Holy Shrine and offer to the King of Glory with his own hand the gift of his last, heroic labours.

I. Family and Youth

Hasan Balyuzi shared with the Guardian of the Faith descent from the same great-grandfather, Haji Mirza Abu'l-Qasim - one of the two brothers of Khadijih-Bagum, the wife of the Báb -- whose daughter, Fatimih-Sultan-Bagum, was Mr. Balyuzi's paternal grandmother. His paternal grandfather was Muhammad-Hasan, a merchant of a Bushire family, whom Baha'u'llah accepted as of the family of the Báb, and a son of this union was Mirza 'Ali Aqa, later entitled Muvuqqari'd-Dawlih, the father of Hasan Balyuzi. His mother, Munavvar Khanum, traced her descent from both brothers of the wife of the Báb, and thus Mr. Balyuzi's 'illustrious lineage' had a twofold bond with Khadijih-Bagum for whom he had a particular love and esteem.