# H. Collis Featherstone

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Graham Hassall, H. Collis Featherstone, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> H. Collis Featherstone
> 
> Graham Hassall
> 
> published in Australian Bahá'í Bulletin
> 
> 1990-10
> 
> (1913-1990). When, in October 1957, Shoghi Effendi cabled
> "ANNOUNCE YOUR ELEVATION RANK HAND CAUSE CONFIDENT NEW
> HONOUR WILL ENABLE YOU RISE GREATER HEIGHTS SERVICE BELOVED
> FAITH", Collis Featherstone was already closely associated
> with the service of Clara Dunn (q.v.), who had been appointed to
> the rank of Hand of the Cause in 1952. He possessed, as she did,
> an energy and devotion to the Faith, and a single-mindedness in
> serving it, which outshone the accomplishments of many raised in
> more privileged circumstances. We stand at too close a point in
> time to obtain a proper perspective on his life-work, and in a
> brief account such as this it is only possible to review his
> achievements in their broadest outline.
> 
> Mr Featherstone was born at Quorn, in the mid-north of the
> Australian state of South Australia, on 5 May 1913. Although
> named Harold Collis, he was known as Col or Collis. His Father's
> job took the family to several country towns, but his most
> memorable years from 1921 were spent in Smithfield, about 25
> kilometres from Adelaide. He travelled daily from Smithfield to
> school in the city, and to his first job as an office boy. He
> then studied accounting at night school. For four years from 1932
> he worked for a large engineering firm, where he learnt his
> fitting and turning and die-making trade. By the time he married
> in 1938 he was already a partner in an engineering business,
> making pressed metal parts. He became a first class die-maker,
> and his integrity, fairness, and expertise earnt him much respect
> in the business community. He bought out his partner in the
> 1950s.
> 
> Mr Featherstone had contemplated becoming an Anglican
> clergyman, but was unable to reconcile himself to various church
> doctrines, or to the variety of churches. In his search for
> satisfaction, he at one time attended three different church
> services each Sunday, favouring those of the Unitarian preacher
> Rev. G.E. Hale, who drew on the scriptures of the
> "other" great religions. He had begun visiting the
> library to read on comparative religions.
> 
> Bertha and Joe Dobbins introduced Collis and his wife Madge to
> the Bahá'í Faith in 1944, and when they became Bahá'ís late that
> year they were among the first "young people", then
> with only three small children, to enter the Adelaide community.
> Mr Featherstone quickly set about absorbing knowledge of all
> aspects of the Faith. When not satisfied with the answers
> received from individuals or institutions in Australia, he
> directed his enquiry to the Guardian, who over the years replied
> in about 20 letters and cables on all manner of subjects.
> 
> From 1944 to 1949 the Featherstones assisted mostly in
> expanding teaching activities in Adelaide. Firesides (with
> delicious suppers) which started long before they became Bahá'ís,
> continued at their home in Albert Park. Later there were
> deepening classes and other meetings in their home, and their
> physical vigour and spiritual energy gradually affected the
> entire Adelaide Bahá'í community. When an Assembly was
> established in Woodville (which included Albert Park) at Ridvan
> 1948 about 130 guests - including most members of the NSA and
> nearly all the Bahá'ís in Adelaide - attended a dinner held to
> celebrate the formation of the first Assembly formed outside
> Adelaide city, which was reported in the local paper. This
> success was not Mr Featherstone's alone, but here, and with so
> many accomplishments later on, his spirit of action was probably
> the factor that transformed potential for success into real
> achievement.
> 
> In addition to his involvment in local Bahá'í activities, Mr
> Featherstone served on the teaching committee for South
> Australia. He regularly visited Kingston with Harold Fitzner, and
> later visited other country towns which were goal areas. At this
> time he began to travel interstate more frequently in support of
> events such as "World Religion Day" - in Melbourne, or
> some other capital city. For several years the family attended
> the national Summer School at Yerrinbool, outside Sydney,
> travelling the 900 miles by car and caravan. Both Mr and Mrs
> Featherstone contributed talks to the program, and with their
> children, contributed fully to the life of the summer school.
> 
> The Australians and New Zealand Bahá'ís were engaged in their
> first co-ordinated teaching plan (1947-1953) when Mr Featherstone
> first when to National convention as a delegate, in 1949. He was
> elected to the National Assembly, and was subsequently re-elected
> annually until 1962. He served as chairman in 1953 and in several
> of the subsequent years. He assisted the National Assembly, in
> the period when he was first elected to it, in its handling of
> complex legal matters concerning Assembly by-laws, foreign and
> Local Assembly incorporation, and property registration and
> leasing - which had emerged at the time in addition to the usual
> matters concerning teaching and administration of the Faith. He
> was strong, even emphatic, when convening meetings, and with
> these qualities was able to ensure that business was concluded
> promptly. He was efficient and considerate of the views of
> others, yet firm when carrying out decisions. His sense of humour
> and positive approach aided him in overcoming petty obstacles and
> difficulties.
> 
> The Six Year Plan was completed with jublication, and with
> much last-minute effort. The Faetherstones did their part by
> moving to Port Adelaide to help establish the Assembly there.
> Now, the period in which activities were confined to the
> home-front were over, and Shoghi Effendi had announced the goals
> of a ten-year "world encircling Crusade". Collis and
> Magde attended the New Delhi conference in October. The
> Australian and New Zealand Bahá'ís were allocated seven
> "virgin" and six "consolidation" territories
> to settle in the Asia-Pacific region, and some pioneers moved to
> their posts following the conference. The Featherstones travelled
> on to make their pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines in Akka and
> Haifa, and to meet the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. This was a
> unique privilege, to be in Haifa at time when the Guardian was
> receiving word of the movement of those pioneers he named
> "Knights of Bahá'u'lláh". The Featherstones asked as
> many questions as possible to guide them in their services in the
> coming decade, and they returned to Australia brimming with
> energy.
> 
> Mr Featherstone immersed himself in the administration
> regional expansion. Notwithstanding commitments with work and
> family (after four daughters, a son was born in September 1954),
> he became secretary of the Asian Teaching Committee, the National
> Assembly's major committee responsible for the dispersement and
> welfare of pioneers. The committee's newsletter "Koala
> News", distributed from 1954 until the formation of the
> South Pacific Regional Assembly in 1959, was treasured by the
> pioneers as a source of encouragement and news, and the latest
> instructions from Shoghi Effendi. An important message that
> arrived in Adelaide during the day would be typed out by Madge,
> and roneoed and rushed to the Post Office by Collis for posting
> before midnight. Where committee responsibilities ended, the
> Featherstones worked personally to assist.
> 
> In 1954 Clara Dunn appointed her first two Auxiliary Board
> Members for Australasia - Collis Featherstone and Thelma Perks,
> who became responsible for protection and propagation of the
> Bahá'í Faith in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific region.
> Clara Dunn received letters from the Hands of the Cause in the
> Holy Land explaining which activities Shoghi Effendi felt were
> most important for herself and her Board Members to undertake in
> the period immediately ahead. In June 1954, for instance, they
> informed her that during the second phase of the Crusade, which
> was to last from 1954-1956, the major tasks to be accomplished by
> the Hands, the Auxiliary Boards, and National Spiritual
> Assemblies, included the acquisition of Temple sites (the Sydney
> site had already been purchased) and of National Headquarters
> (including one in Auckland, and another in Suva); the maintenance
> of victories already won; the multiplication of Bahá'í Centres;
> the expansion of literature; the purchase of national endowments;
> the incorporation of Assemblies; and the establishment of
> Publishing Trusts.
> 
> As a member of the Asian Teaching Committee, the National
> Assembly, and the Auxiliary Board, Mr Featherstone was at the
> heart of efforts to communicate the vital needs of the time to
> the Bahá'í community. The Guardian had specifically requested
> that the Board Members encourage individuals and Assemblies
> through correspondence and personal visits, and assist in
> fostering amongst them the sense of unity regarded as essential
> to the attraction of spiritual assistance. They were,
> furthermore, to encourage contributions to the various funds, so
> that the community's many important activities could be carried
> forward. The Guardian gave general instructions such as these
> while leaving the details of the functioning of Auxiliary Boards
> to the various Hands of the Cause. There were no rules of
> procedure, and the Hands on each continent were free to determine
> their own modes operation. They were advised to send news of
> achievements to Haifa, but to settle for themselves questions of
> rules, regulations and procedure.
> 
> Until 1957 Mr Featherstone and Thelma Perks assisted Clara
> Dunn in every possible way. They wrote reports to the Guardian on
> her behalf, and travelled frequently and extensively visiting the
> Pacific pioneers and the first Pacific Island Bahá'ís. Mr
> Featherstone re-arranged his business affairs so as to allow
> himself greater freedom for travel. In late December 1954 he
> travelled to Suva and Auckland on the first of a great many
> Pacific Island trips. At this time, his task was was to inspire
> and encourage the isolated pioneers - most of whom where were
> living and working for the Faith in intensely difficult
> circumstances - and to deepen the Islanders who were being
> attracted into the Cause. Later, as a Hand of the Cause, he had
> to explain the nature of the Bahá'í teachings to government
> officials and religious leaders, and solve difficulties as they
> occured within the infant Bahá'í communities.
> 
> In October 1957 Shoghi Effendi appointed a "third
> contingent" of Hands of the Cause, comprising Enoch Olinga,
> William Sears, John Robarts in West and South West Africa, Hasan
> Balyuzi & John Ferraby in British Isles; Abu'l-Qasim Faizi in
> the Arabian Peninsula, and H. Collis Featherstone and
> Rahmatu'llah Muhajir in the Pacific. With his appointment as a
> Hand of the Cause, and news of Shoghi Effendi's untimely passing
> one month later, Mr Featherstone's previous services, no matter
> how zealously carried out, paled in significance to the
> challenges ahead: he was now one of the "chief
> stewards" of Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Order, who now
> held supreme and grave responsibilities for the protection and
> upliftment of the Cause of God. Mr Featherstone travelled with
> Clara Dunn to Haifa for the first convocation of the Hands, and
> shared with the other Hands the anguish that accompanied the
> realisation that Shoghi Effendi had not left a will. As the Chief
> Stewards, the Hands guided the Bahá'í world to complete the Ten
> Year Crusade goals. They announced after their 1959 conclave that
> the Universal House of Justice would be both elected and
> established on Mount Carmel at Ridvan 1963. The Hands of the
> Cause ruled themselves ineligible for election to the supreme
> institution and Collis resigned from the Australian National
> Spiritual Assembly in September 1962.
> 
> The Hands of the Cause now took responsibility for the
> completion of the goals of the Ten Year Crusade. Initially, Mr
> Featherstone's responsibilities continued to be mostly in the
> Australasian region. The Bahá'í communities in numerous Pacific
> Islands worked toward the goal of establishing a Regional
> Assembly for the South Pacific, which was formed in Suva in 1959.
> The role of the Hand seemed to have no limits: cabling
> encouraging words to conferences, summer schools, and
> conventions; pointing to the comparative success of new
> communities (in July 1960 Australia was struggling to hold 28
> Local Spiritual Assemblies, while the South Pacific had already
> established 37); encouraging prominent Bahá'í speakers to visit
> the Pacific Islands as they passed through the region from Asia
> to North America; cabling money to aid pioneers and communities
> which had been devastated by natural disasters (such as Bertha
> Dobbins, whose school in Port Vila was affected by a cyclone in
> 1960) or to assist pioneers to remain at remote posts at which
> there was no possibility of gaining employment (thus allowing
> Jean Sevin to lengthen his stay on Loyalty Island in 1961);
> informing Assemblies of the fate of churches and clerics who had
> attacked the Faith (such as the South Australian Anglican paper
> that fell into financial and legal difficulties soon after it had
> printed an unfavourable article); overseeing the work of Auxliary
> Board Members; consulting with National Assemblies; conveying
> progress reports to the Hands in the Holy Land.
> 
> When John Robarts became ill in 1961, Mr Featherstone took his
> place at the inaugural conventions of the Bahá'ís of Nicaragua
> and Honduras. For the first time he was travelling beyond the
> Asia-Pacific region to represent the Hands of the Cause. As
> usual, he visited Bahá'í communities while both approaching and
> departing Central America: in Suva he presented members of the
> South Pacific Regional Assembly with a curtain from the Shrine of
> the Bab. During the following year, many goals of the Ten Year
> Plan remained to be completed, and Mr Featherstone travelled
> extensively. Indicative of the pace at which he travelled, was an
> itinerary between October 3 and November 12, to Sydney, Noumea,
> Vila, Suva, Tonga, Suva again, Apia, Pago Pago, Nadi, Auckland,
> Christchurch, and Melbourne, during which he spoke to Prime
> Ministers, gave firesides, and consulted institutions: this was
> the pattern that he repeated for another three decades.
> 
> Mr Featherstone absorbed the Bahá'í writings, and drew on when
> speaking. When embarked on a tour, he pursued specific themes
> drawn from messages of Shoghi Effendi and later from the
> Universal House of Justice. He counselled on the urgency of
> teaching, and on the necessity for obedience to the institutions.
> His intelligence was of a practical nature, and he drew on
> personal experience to know the condition of society. He
> installed a powerful world-band radio on which to receive news
> broadcast from around the globe. He was a practical and
> methodical man who at all times radiated joy. He not only had
> vision and foresight, but the ability to think projects through
> from beginning to end (when he designed and made a die he had to
> be able to visualize at the beginning the finished product he
> would end up with). He was not a spur of the moment man - he was
> a practical planner - but nevertheless could act quickly and
> decisively when necessary. He spoke with authority and inspired
> confidence. Across almost three decades he represented the
> Universal House of Justice at such significant Bahá'í events as
> the dedication of Mashriqu'l-Adhkars, formation of
> new National Spiritual Assemblies, and the convening of
> international conferences; he negotiated with heads of states and
> governments to secure the protection or the rights of Bahá'í
> communities; on equally numerous occasions he visited
> governmental and religious leaders as special representative of
> the Universal House of Justice. He attended many of the most
> significant conferences held in the past four decades: the New
> Delhi (1953) and Sydney (1958) Conferences associated with the
> World Crusade; those in Sydney (1967), Singapore, Suva, and
> Sapporo (1971) associated with the Nine Year Plan (1964-73); in
> Anchorage (July 1976), and Auckland (1977) associated with the
> Five Year Plan (1974-1979); and Canberra and Dublin (1982) in the
> middle of the Seven Year Plan (1979-1986). In addition, Mr
> Featherstone attended the first National Convention held in
> Uganda (1963),and represented the Universal House of Justice at
> the inaugural national conventions of the South West Pacific
> Ocean (1964), Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1967), Papua New Guinea
> (1969), Samoa (1970), Northwest Pacific Ocean (1972), Marshall
> Islands (1977), and Tuvalu (1981).
> 
> During the Nine-year plan the work of the Hands of the Cause
> increased dramatically, and Mr Featherstone maintained an 18
> member Auxiliary Board (9 for Propagation, 9 for protection),
> spread throughout the Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.
> With the appointment of a three-member Continental Board of
> Counsellors in 1968 - which assumed all responsibility for the
> Boards - he was freer to travel beyond the Asia-Pacific region.
> In the 1970s the Featherstones travelled world-wide several times
> to visit Bahá'í communities in East and Southern Africa, the
> Indian ocean, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
> 
> In 1976 the Universal House of Justice expressed to Mr
> Featherstone its hope that he could devote all his energies to
> Bahá'í duties. He sold his business and moved to Rockhampton in
> North Queensland, while the punishing pace of travel continued
> unabated. In 1979, for instance, the Featherstones undertook a
> 76-day journey through 10-nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
> They had come to know Bahá'ís in a multitude of different
> cultures, visited remote villages under the most arduous
> circumstances of climate, food, transportation and accommodation.
> On 29 September 1990 Mr Featherstone, succumbed to a heart attack
> and died in Kathmandu, Nepal. Several days later his children
> Margaret, Joan, Kay, Mariette and Jeff, and other family members
> and representatives of National Assemblies, joined Madge for his
> burial at the "rooftop of the world" against a
> Himalayan sky. He joined the distinguished company of fellow
> Hands of the Cause John Esslemont, Keith Ransom-Kehler, Martha
> Root, Clara and Hyde Dunn, Dorothy Baker, A.Q. Faizi, Rahmat
> Muhajir, Aldebert Muhlschlegal, Leroy Ioas, Paul Haney, and Ugo
> Giachary, who also died far from their native lands in the path
> of service to Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> Mr Featherstone "focused much energy on reinvigorating
> the long-suffereing friends in war-ravaged Vietnam." (UHJ
> Rid90). The Universal House of Justice cabled: "Deeply
> grieved announce passing valiant Hand Cause God Collis
> Featherstone while visiting Kathmandu Nepal course extensive
> journey Asia. His notable accomplishments as staunch fearless
> defender covenant his unceasing commitment propagation Cause all
> parts world especially Pacific region his unremitting
> perseverence fostering establishment local national institutions
> administrative order his exemplary devotion to writings Faith his
> outstanding personal qualities unswerving loyalty enthusiasm zeal
> and dedication distinguish his manifold services throughout many
> decades offering prayers holy shrines bountiful reward his
> radiant soul Abha Kingdom advice friends everywhere hold
> befitting memorial gatherings particularly in Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs
> recognition magnificent achievements".
> 
> Bibliography
> 
> Australian Bahá'í Bulletin (various numbers
> 1944-1990)
> 
> Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá'í World 1950-1957,
> Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, 1971.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views15591 views since posted 2000; last edit 2025-04-04 14:50 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../hassall_colis_featherstone;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> author
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/158
> Citation: ris/158
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *H. Collis Featherstone (Used by permission of the curator)*