Family History 1.147

Gaze History: NSG Memoir continued

The Last Years 

Noel and Mary at this stage eagerly awaited the weekly letters from Audrey and Franklin in Agartala, and just as regularly replied to them.  There was great excitement when a cable from Franklin announced the birth of their first grandchild, Judith Lynne, on 27 November. When the detailed letters arrived, they learned that the baby had been born in the operating theatre of the small mission hospital, nearly at midnight, by the light of petromax kerosene lanterns, and with the assistance of Dr Lawrence Sanson, the mission doctor, and two nurses, one from New Zealand and one Indian. 

At the beginning of 1960, Olwyn entered the Bible Training College (now Laidlaw College) with a view to working as a missionary nurse.  Stuart started his University studies at that stage too. Franklin, having completed his language studies in Bengali, was now appointed Principal of St Paul’s Mission School. Noel was away from home at meetings almost every night of the week at this stage.  His contribution to the Baptist Union was recognised by a decision to nominate him as President of the Union for the 1962 year. This meant that he would be President-elect in 1961 and automatically a member of all the Boards and committees, so making him even more busy out of work hours, if that was possible. 

So in 1960 Noel resigned from the Secretaryship of Epsom Church, and his place was taken by a long-time friend, Jack Smith.  The Church had entered enthusiastically into the Billy Graham Crusade of 1959 (Stuart was an usher), and had welcomed with open arms their new minister, Rev David Edwards, a former missionary in China and Pakistan, who had made many friends at Epsom while a student. 

In 1961 Stuart started work at the firm of Thorne, Thorne, White and Clark-Walker, where he continued for three years during his student days. 

Olwyn was studying hard at the BTI, and working Saturday afternoons at Lavington Hospital (now Southern Cross) in Epsom. Late in 1961 she was accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society for work in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as a missionary nurse.  So again they said farewell to another of the family for a longish period.  Olwyn left for Brahmanbaria on 1 February 1961 and arrived on 1 March. 

April brought another cable, this time announcing the birth of Terrence Christopher in the Welsh Mission Hospital in Shillong.  Now that the majority of their family were living in the Indian Sub-continent, Noel and Mary started to plan an overseas trip to visit them all in 1962.  The excuse was that there was an international conference of the Leprosy Mission in the UK at the same time. And it was appropriate for the President of the Union and Mission to pay a visit to the missionary staff and their Indian and Pakistani colleagues during his year of office. How could they stay home!

 

In addition to those important visits, the trip included stops in Calcutta, and in Jerusalem with a tour of some of the important sites in the Holy Land, and after the Conference, which was held on the Isle of Wight, they called at Hong Kong and Manila on their way home.