Owen Battrick

Owen Battrick
Born	December 6, 1919 Pinner, London, England
Died	April 14, 1995 Tahiti
NSA member	British Isles 1960 - 1967 South Pacific ???? - ???? New Zealand ???? - ????
ABM	Australasia 1973 - 1976
Counsellor	Australasia 1976 - 1985
Spouse(s)	Jeannette Rodgers m. 1947 (1922 - 1978) June Ritter m. 1980
Children	Richard, Sarah
Parent(s)	Alfred, Olive

Alfred Owen Battrick (December 6, 1919 - April 14, 1995) was an English Bahá'í who pioneered to New Caledonia, served on the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Islands as secretary, on the National Spiritual Assembly of New Zealand as treasurer, and as an Auxiliary Board member and Counsellor for Australasia.

Biography

Life before the Faith

Owen was born in London to Alfred, who worked in the insurance business, and Olive. He was the third of four children. Alfred's father was Head Coachman to the Bishop of York and served in the choir of York Minster, but Alfred himself was less active and the family only attended church three times a year. Owen suffered from a middle ear infection in his youth which caused lifelong hearing damage. He attended Merchant Taylors' Public School and after graduating joined the army in 1939 becoming a second lieutenant in the Staffordshire Yeomanry and being deployed to Palestine. He served as a navigator in the North African Campaign, and as a captain in operational intelligence during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.

After the war Owen briefly worked in insurance and then moved to Switzerland to study at the Lausanne Hotel School. He met Jeannette Wayman Rodgers who was also studying there. Her husband had died on the Murmansk run in the war leaving her widowed with a young daughter, Ilona, and she and Owen married in April 1947. They moved to North Wales where they managed a hotel for two years, and then moved to Twyford, Wokingham Rural District, in 1951 and founded a catering company in Reading which operated the first tea bar in England and eventually began selling health food.

Service to the Faith in England

Owen and Jeannette had two children during their time in England, a son, Richard, and a daughter, Sarah. They became interested in religion while living in south England, and Owen discovered the Bahá'í Faith in a footnote in a book about life after death and began reading on the Faith. He attended a public Bahá'í meeting held by Beryl de Gruchy, a Bahá'í who had pioneered to Reading, and was surprised that only four people, all Bahá'ís, were in attendance. He was also unable to stay at the meeting as he needed to keep an appointment, although he bought ten books.

He and Jeannette became Bahá'ís and the next public meeting they attended was attended by one hundred and twenty people. They were the third married couple to become Bahá'ís at the same time in Britain. In February 1957 they went on pilgrimage and were able to meet Shoghi Effendi who advised them to teach in the United Kingdom for the remainder of the Ten Year Crusade and then pioneer to the Pacific. Owen was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles in a by-election after returning from the Holy Land, and he and Jeannette moved to Edinburgh for six months to help re-establish the Local Spiritual Assembly.

Pioneering to the Pacific

By the end of the Ten Year Crusade Owen had earned a degree to teach geography and he and Jeannette sold their business and set sail for New Caledonia in 1967, stopping in the Solomon Islands along the way. Owen was elected to the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific after arriving, appointed to the National Teaching Committee, and began staffing the National Office. Jeanette and their children traveled on to New Zealand while Owen remained in the Solomons. After arriving in New Caledonia Owen secured work, a house, and a car and was joined by his family. He eventually secured steady employment with the Shell Oil Company, and was able to secure permission to remain in the country in 1973, when immigrants began to be replaced by French nationals in jobs by the government. He was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member in 1973.

In 1974 the Battricks moved to Ouvea in the Loyalty Islands and lived there for eighteen months. Jeannette fell ill with cancer and the Battricks moved to New Zealand in 1975 for her to undergo treatment. Owen continued to regularly visit New Caledonia as Board member, and in 1975 he was informed by the Universal House of Justice that he was being appointed as a Continental Counsellor for Australasia. He was officially appointed as Counsellor in March 1976, and Jeannette served as his secretary. In April 1976 he opened the opening of the New Hebrides Ḥaẓíratu'l-Quds, and he was to attend the formation of the National Spiritual Assembly of the New Hebrides in April 1977, but had to cancel at short notice due to Jeannette's health taking a turn for the worse. He spoke at the New Zealand National Convention at Ridvan, 1977. Jeannette passed on October 10, 1978.

In January 1979 Owen was part of a delegation that greeted Ruhiyyih Khanum at Auckland airport when she arrived for a visit to New Zealand. In 1980 Owen was reappointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors for Australasia, to which the Universal House of Justice had introduced five year terms. He remarried to June Ritter the same year. In 1982 he attended the Kiribati National Convention.

Later Life

After completing his term as Counsellor in 1985 Owen was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of New Zealand, serving for two years, one as treasurer. He began travel-teaching after serving on the Assembly, visiting French Polynesia and islands in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean.

In 1994 he visited Ireland, teaching at Summer Schools in the North and the Republic and also visited England, taking part in a teaching project in Liverpool. In April 1995 Owen visited Tahiti at the request of the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii, while there he assisted in the election of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Papeete and helped locate a site for a Ḥaẓíratu'l-Quds. He fell ill on April 13 and his condition rapidly deteriorated and he passed on April 15. He was laid to rest in a cemetery in Papeete near where the first Bahá'í of Tahiti is buried.

The National Spiritual Assembly of New Zealand wrote the following message after his passing:

"being comforted by the knowledge that Owen passed to the Abhá Kingdom in full harness, as he would have wanted to do. He had a particular love of the French-speaking territories in the Pacific, and his ability to contribute to their progress only hours before his unexpected passing is a befitting tribute to his worthy endeavors in the pathway of service."

The Universal House of Justice cabled the following:

DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING OWEN BATTRICK, WHO RENDERED DEVOTED SERVICES CAUSE FOUR DECADES. HIS ENTHUSIASTIC COMMITMENT PROPAGATION FAITH EUROPE AUSTRALASIA DISTINGUISHED BY PIONEERING NEW CALEDONIA LOYALTY ISLANDS, DEDICATION ADVANCEMENT CAUSE FRENCH-SPEAKING AREAS PACIFIC. RECALL HIS HIGHLY VALUED PARTICIPATION ADMINISTRATIVE WORK FAITH INCLUDING MEMBERSHIP NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES OF BRITISH ISLES, SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, NEW ZEALAND, CROWNED SERVICE NINE YEARS MEMBER AUSTRALASIAN BOARD COUNSELLORS. WILL LONG BE REMEMBERED RADIANT SPIRIT, EXEMPLARY DEDICATION WORK CAUSE TO VERY LAST BREATH. KINDLY CONVEY WIFE FAMILY CONDOLENCES, ASSURANCE PRAYERS PROGRESS HIS LUMINOUS SOUL. ASKING NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES AUSTRALIA SAMOA HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS MASHRIQU'L-ADHKARS

References

Obituary published in Bahá'í World, In Memoriam: 1992-1997, pp 211-215