Matthew Frere-Smith (1923-1999) | UK Baha’i Histories

Matthew came from a family of independent thinkers with a certain pioneering spirit. His grandfather, Charles Thomas, was a Senior Puisne Judge in the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope. He had emigrated to South Africa as a young man, where he, in turn, met and married Julia Greathead. Her grandfather had emigrated there as part of the group of early British settlers in South Africa in the 1820s.

A generation later, Matthew’s father, Percival, who had studied law at Cambridge, returned to South Africa to practice as a lawyer for 10 years. However, following a case he represented when his anti-apartheid views became apparent, he had to leave and return to England. Matthew himself challenged expectations on returning from the Second World War, choosing to become an artist, despite his father wishing that he would study Law.

From his early interest and ability in art, fostered at a small Quaker school, he dedicated himself to a highly creative life. This was expressed progressively through many different media, exploring representative forms at the beginning and towards the end of his life, but with many exciting experiments in what he called “impossible shapes” during his most productive years.

Percival, now a barrister in England, married Sylvia Naftel, a talented painter whose family included the painter Paul Jacob Naftel, whose portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Sylvia gave birth to four sons – Matthew being born on 16 May 1923 and the second eldest. Interestingly, within his immediate family, Matthew became a sculptor, one brother became an architect, and another an art dealer, with only the youngest studying Law at Cambridge.

 The family moved from St John’s Wood in London (where Matthew was born) to Kent in the early 1930s to the village of Sutton Valence, where all four brothers attended the Sutton Valence School for boys. In 1941, at the age of 18 years, Matthew joined Dartmouth Naval College, became a commissioned officer, and served during the latter years of the Second World War until 1947. During his years in the Royal Navy, he filled many sketchbooks with paintings and drawings of different land and seascapes and naval vessels. He later told friends that while in the Navy his ship docked at Haifa, and he remembered walking up towards Mount Carmel.

Matthew was an able pupil at school and Percival was very keen for him to follow him into a career in law. The outbreak of the Second World War intervened, and by the end of the war, Matthew had decided that he wanted to become an artist. He bought himself out of the Royal Navy and enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art in 1947. He continued with postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art, where he studied sculpture, winning a scholarship as the top student of his year, to travel to Italy and Greece.

During his first year at Wimbledon School of Art, he met and fell in love with a student of Dress Design, Patricia Ryall, whose French-English mixed heritage intrigued him. They married in 1950, and their first child, Bridget, was born in 1951 during the final year of his studies. Neither Matthew nor Patricia was particularly religious. Matthew’s family background was Protestant and Patricia’s was Roman Catholic. Her mother was from a French Catholic background. This meant that Matthew agreed that his children would be brought up in the Roman Catholic church.

Matthew’s first post as a young lecturer was at Hanley School of Art in Stoke-on-Trent. The family bought a 150-year-old cottage with 7 acres at Caverswall, an isolated rural village. Matthew commuted by motorbike. He nursed ideas of self-sufficiency, and they grew vegetables and kept goats and chickens. Patricia had been born in Aden, where her parents were ex-pats, and returned to live in Wimbledon as a child before the outbreak of the war. She was a city girl! She said that it felt like living in the middle of nowhere. Their family grew quickly and within six years there were four young children. French au pair girls helped with childcare during those early years and offered Patricia some company.

In 1956 the four children contracted whooping cough and the family doctor recommended taking the children to the coast to aid their recovery. As a child Matthew and his family had spent many summer holidays renting a holiday chalet in Norfolk, at a small village called Eccles-on-Sea. While holidaying there Matthew and Patricia decided to move from Staffordshire to Norfolk, with Matthew wanting to try becoming a freelance sculptor. They bought a house in the small town of Stalham on the Norfolk Broads and spent the next twelve years living there.

It is not known exactly how Matthew was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith but the move to Norfolk provided a significant first step on his spiritual journey. He was able to secure a studio space just off the High Street in Stalham and created quite a stir locally as the first artist to move into the small rural Norfolk town. He also had a striking wife, who designed and made many of her own and her children’s clothes, wore brightly-coloured stockings, and was “foreign”! The way the children spoke was ridiculed by the local children, and one son, Claude, was very quick to develop a Norfolk accent once he started school, to acquire some local friends!

Matthew was competing for sculpture commissions nationally and locally with some success but soon had to resort to part-time lecturing at Norwich School of Art and Design to secure a more regular income. At that time the Head of the School of Art was Leslie Davenport (known as “Dav” to his close friends). Leslie Davenport was also a key member of the Norwich Twenty Group. The Norwich Twenty Group is a collective of artists formed in 1944 to raise standards of local professional art as a contribution to the history of art in Norfolk, through mutual criticism and appraisal of work. Matthew joined the Norwich Twenty Group and exhibited with them many times over the following years.

Matthew and Leslie became good friends and their families often visited each other. Leslie was a painter. From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s Leslie organised a summer camp for up to 200 artists, writers, and musicians living on the beach and dunes at Winterton-on-Sea for six weeks every summer. No doubt there were discussions and deliberations on a huge range of subjects during these camps.

It is likely that through his connection with Leslie, Matthew was introduced to Robert (Bob) Cheek, a Bahá’i living in Norwich at the time.

Matthew began to investigate the Bahá’í Faith. He started a correspondence with Bob Cheek in between attending meetings in Norwich in the small Bahá’í Centre. This heralded the beginning of a turbulent period for Matthew as Patricia was not happy about his interest in this new religion. Unfortunately, visits to their family home by Bob Cheek, usually unannounced, and sometimes with his wife, often caused arguments between the couple, and were witnessed by their young children. Letters exchanged with Bob document how Matthew delayed formally declaring his belief in Bahá’u’lláh until he felt that Patricia was happy with it. At times, he was optimistic and at other times despondent. Finally in 1958 he formally declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

There followed a period of his life where Matthew experienced considerable success as a sculptor. His sculpture developed from early figurative work, carved in wood and stone – including commissions for bronze busts – into abstract and geometric forms using metal, wire, plastic, and nylon thread.  As early as 1959 he began making drawings based on impossible geometry, as part of research into the creation of lightweight, mobile, airborne, multidimensional expressive forms.

During the period 1962 -72 he was creating and exhibiting work consistently in London, Oxford, Birmingham, and Tenerife, as well as more locally. He had three one-man shows in London, two at The Drian Gallery, one at the Alwin Gallery, and another at Compendium Galleries in Birmingham. He was also commissioned to create public works of art, for example at the re-designed Elephant and Castle Development in London, and in numerous locations in Norwich. His work was collected by Erno Goldfinger, the architect behind the re-development of the Elephant and Castle, and can be seen in Erno Goldfinger’s home in Hampstead Heath, London, which belongs to the National Trust. Several pieces of his work are owned by The Sainsbury Collection at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich.

In 1962 he became involved in some of the planning for the first Bahá’í World Congress. He was on a committee charged with managing the care of the children of Bahá’ís attending the Congress. The fact that he had such a large family made him a prime candidate for this task. By then the family had grown to 9 children. The family took their touring caravan with a large army tent and camped at a site in Crystal Palace throughout the Congress. Bridget remembers helping him in

Claude also remembers this adventure, and thinking how unusual it was to see so many people, dressed in brightly coloured clothes.

It was at the World Congress that Matthew met Bernard Leach and Mark Tobey. They debated the concept of “Bahá’í Art”, and how they might teach the Bahá’í Faith through their work. It was a time of great optimism, following the ending of the Second World War. Matthew was interested in the work of Freud and Jung. He was excited by Modernist architecture, particularly the work of Buckminster Fuller and Le Corbusier.

He was also trying to juggle his commitment to Bahá’u’lláh with the demands of a growing family, and increasing tensions within his marriage. Matthew and Patricia had twelve children, and in 1969 they were aged between 1-18 years. Matthew loved babies and adopted a philosophic response to the repeated pregnancies that characterised their married life.

Matthew continued combining his teaching work with undertaking commissions and exhibitions. He taught at Great Yarmouth College of Art for several years in the 1960s before moving to become Head of the Foundation Course at Lowestoft College of Art. The family moved to Norwich in 1967 to accommodate the varied educational needs of the children. This enabled Matthew to become closer to the Norwich Bahá’í community but did nothing to ease tensions in the marriage, and Claude does not remember any Bahá’í activities taking place in the house.

In 1966 while teaching Sculpture at the Lowestoft College of Art in Suffolk, Matthew first met Richard Morgan, a student. Richard became a good friend of Sheila Wyatt, another student on the course, and her husband Tim, who worked at the Fisheries Laboratory in Lowestoft. In 1967 Richard went to an exhibition of paintings and sculpture with Sheila and Tim in London at a gallery called “Tooths”, in the Haymarket in London. Matthew was exhibiting there. There followed several years when Richard and Matthew had no contact.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s children were growing up and the older ones wanted to discuss politics, religion, current affairs, drugs, and sex. In March 1970, Shomais and Abbas Afnan, who were Bahá’ís living in Attleborough in Norfolk, organised a residential Youth Conference in the local secondary school. Matthew took three of his eldest children (Bridget 19 years, Claude, 17 years, and Phyllis,15 years) to this, and to his delight, all three of them declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh by the end of the weekend. It was there that Bridget met her future husband, Iain Macdonald.

In 1972, Matthew’s marriage to Patricia broke down and he had no choice but to leave the family home. Initially, he stayed with a colleague in Lowestoft, and then in a large caravan belonging to the family, that was moved to a caravan site in North Denes, Lowestoft, and later onto a farm at Gisleham.

His son, Claude, then 19 years old, went to live with him. Claude had completed his Foundation Art course at Norwich Art School and was studying Pottery at Lowestoft College of Art. Claude’s mentor at the time was Tom Plowman, a talented potter and good friend of the family.

An unintentional outcome of the marital separation was that Matthew was able to practise his beliefs freely. He had hoped to wait patiently for Patricia to accept the Faith, and then be free to follow it openly himself. He did not want to cause disunity in the family. Sadly, this was not to be.

Claude describes how there were numerous firesides in the caravan. One of Matthew’s students, Nigel Colebrook described how Matthew stuck up a notice in the college about a Bahá’í fireside taking place in the caravan, and how five or six of the students decided to go as they thought it was his birthday! He described how Matthew then told them about the Bahá’í Faith and gave them leaflets to take away with them. It was there that Nigel first heard about the concept of Progressive Revelation. Nigel noticed how Matthew always wore a small round badge with an Arabic script on it.

It was during this time that Matthew met Prudence George, a dedicated Bahá’í, who pioneered to the Canary Islands. and they became very good friends. There is a collection of letters from Prue to Matthew, covering the period of time that she was pioneering in the Canaries, starting in 1972. One summer Matthew traveled to the Canaries to support Prue in her pioneering work and arranged to have an exhibition of his work while there.

The parental separation caused hardship and heartache for all the family in different ways. Patricia continued to live in the family home in Norwich, with eight children still at school. Dennis was studying music at Kneller Hall, Phyllis was studying sculpture at Canterbury Art College, Claude was studying Pottery in Lowestoft, and Bridget had married Iain Macdonald, and was completing a degree in Geography at Durham.

The family finances were strained, and the younger children missed their father (as he did them), only enjoying weekend and holiday visits with him. During these weekend visits he would take them to Baha’i activities, and to visit other Bahá’í families.

During the early 1970s, Matthew became good friends with Ann and Phillip Hinton, who lived in Epsom. The Epsom Bahá’í community at the time was a hive of teaching activity and many of the new believers were artists. He often visited them and supported their teaching and proclamation activities. Ann remembers having six of Matthew’s children stay for a weekend and commented on how well-behaved they were and how the older children looked after the younger ones. Sadly, Philip and Ann’s third child, Suzy-Jay, died five days after her birth. She was buried at a church in the village of Walton-on-the-Hill, and Matthew carved the headstone with the quotation, “Thou art My lamp and My Light is within thee”. The quotation had to be acceptable to the Parish Council, as it was not a Christian burial.

Through this friendship, Matthew was introduced to Anna Hinton, Philip’s sister, and they became good friends. Philip and Ann described Matthew as living “a passionate Bahá’í life”.

Richard Morgan and Matthew’s lives were about to become spiritually entwined. In 1972 Richard experienced what he described as “a spiritual awakening”. He described being driven by a strong feeling that he had to go to see three particular people. One was a painter, who was a Roman Catholic and an acquaintance of Tim Wyatt. The second was a Jewish Rabbi and the third was Matthew. He felt that he was seeking answers….

He spoke to the painter, and then sought out a Jewish Rabbi in Norwich but found no answers, so went in search of Matthew. He turned up at Lowestoft Art School one day hoping to find Matthew teaching that day, but instead met his son, Claude, who was studying pottery at the college at the time. Claude directed him to Matthew’s home, which at that time was in a caravan at Oulton Broad. Richard has described arriving at this meeting with Matthew in a state of mind where someone else was telling him what to say. He remembered asking Matthew if he could lend him a book on the Bahá’í Faith – a book on the Teachings and a book on the history of the faith. Matthew lent him a copy of “The Gleanings”. He read it from cover to cover and recognized it as the inspired word of God. Rosemary, his partner, also read it but felt that she did not understand it. She had been brought up as a Methodist and initially questioned whether it was a betrayal of her belief in Christ. Her mother was always open-minded, and Rosemary recalls how she would worry about whether she would recognise “the Second Coming” if it did happen during her lifetime.

Following this recognition, Richard dreamed one night of an apocalypse; there was turmoil and darkness throughout the world, but suddenly there appeared this Arabic script in the sky. As it shone out in the heavens, he knew that everything was going to be alright. The next day Matthew visited him. The cottage they lived in had an old stable door and Richard initially opened the top half and saw the identical Arabic script displayed on a small badge on Matthew’s chest. The Arabic script was “The Greatest Holy Name.” Matthew began to visit Richard and Rosemary and kept in touch with them.

Claude recalls how he and his father travelled to Bahá’í events all over the country. These included a conference in Manchester, a summer school in Harlech, events in Peterborough, and a Convention in Liverpool. Claude became part of a music group called “Hummingbird”, with Richard and Rosemary, Nigel Colebrook, and Mary Vincent. They performed at various national events but also locally, such as in the Village Hall at Henham, and Saint Felix School for girls in Southwold.

1972 saw the first Barsham Fair. Richard remembers meeting Prudence George there. She was actively teaching the Bahá’í Faith to many of the “hippies” attending the fair.

In 1973 Matthew was granted a sabbatical year’s leave from teaching to study at the Chelmsford Institute for an M.A. Claude moved to live with Richard and Rosemary, while Matthew moved temporarily to Chelmsford for the year. By then, Richard, Rosemary, and Matthew had become close friends.  In April 1973 Richard formally declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

Richard and Rosemary recall that Matthew lived in a flat in Chelmsford owned by the Beyrouz family and remember Matthew bringing his younger children to visit them for Bahá’í Feasts or tea when he had them for contact visits at the weekends. On one visit to Chelmsford, Richard finally understood that he needed to “register” himself as a Bahá’í and formally declare his faith. He described how he had always wanted a badge like the one that Matthew always wore, and on that day, Matthew took off his badge and gave it to him. He treasured it for many years.

Rosemary also became a Bahá’í later in April 1973. Both she and Richard were talented musicians and performed at various public events, including the first Barsham Fair, near Beccles, in 1972.

In 1974 Matthew arranged for Philip Hinton to visit Lowestoft Art School to give a talk on the Bahá’í Faith. He also showed a film of the music group “Seals and Crofts”. Richard remembers the Hintons staying with them and then on the following day, they all traveled back to North London to attend an InterFaith meeting.

Living in the caravan was not good for Matthew’s health, and he often suffered from bronchitis. On one occasion he was admitted to the local hospital, and during his stay described to Richard, seeing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá standing at the foot of his bed.

A Bahá’í Group was formed in Lowestoft, and they held a Day School, throwing bottles into the sea filled with Bahá’í leaflets. There was great excitement when Reuben Morgan, then a small child, received a message back.

It was during this time that the first Spiritual Assembly of Waveney was established. Interest in the Bahá’í Faith had spread and following several declarations a group of eight believers were all living in the area. At that time, Philip Hainsworth was the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, and he directed a ninth believer, Claudia Kelly (daughter of the documentary filmmaker Don Kelly) to move to Waveney to enable the establishment of the Local Spiritual Assembly. Claudia secured a job as an Assistant Matron at a Nursing Home and lived with Richard and Rosemary.

At the time, Matthew had started to study Transcendental Meditation and lots of other students of T.M. attended Bahá’í Meetings. Richard describes how he had a lot of contacts and invited many of them to local Bahá’í meetings.

In 1974 Matthew was able to purchase a cottage at Ashby Dell, near Somerleyton, following the final settlement on his mother’s estate.

Richard describes the early-late 1970s as “a special Bahá’í -time” in the UK, and that Matthew was very much a part of it.

Matthew was described as “radiant” and having a tremendous effect on the world during that short period. Nigel described him as having a presence and being able to light up a room.

Once Matthew had moved into the cottage at Ashby, two of his teenage daughters went to live with him. Phyllis had left art college and was temporarily working in Great Yarmouth, and June went to school in Lowestoft.

As the Waveney Bahá’í community developed, and embraced more diverse souls, challenges began to emerge. Matthew had a deep love for the Faith and a strong sense of propriety.  It led to him becoming more distant from the local community life. However, the Spiritual Assembly grew in strength and experience and thrived for many years until the boundary changes in the 1990s.

Sadly, in 1979, Matthew had a premature stroke. He collapsed in his cottage and was found by the local postman. A neighbour contacted his daughter, Bridget. She and Iain had pioneered from York to Gorleston, with their young family to open the Great Yarmouth District to the Faith. He was admitted to the local Hospital, and then discharged to live with the young family for several months to recover.

This marked a significant change in his life. To experience a stroke, aged only 55 years, and to retire prematurely from his teaching job, triggered a period of crisis and reflection for him. He also experienced a personality change and was easily upset or irritated by others which made life a difficult experience for him. Throughout this period until the end of his life, he continued to be creative and would exhibit his work in venues largely in Norfolk and Suffolk. He would take part in Norfolk Open Studios annually. In 1988 he suffered from a heart condition and had surgery at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire, to repair and replace two heart valves. He recovered well and continued to work whenever he could. He would always relate his life and thoughts to the Bahá’í Faith. Friends and family would visit him and enjoy his company as he did theirs. 

He became increasingly isolated from the local Bahá’í community and firstly moved from the home that he loved at Ashby Dell in Suffolk, to Norwich for a few years, and then finally to Briston in North Norfolk. 

He continued to be creative to the end. During the last week of his life, he asked his daughter to bring him his sketchbook and watercolour paints and he painted some small still-life compositions in his room. He died on December 27^th, 1999 in respite care in Kelling Heath and is buried in Briston churchyard. 

Early in January 2000, a multi-faith funeral was held in the local church, bringing together many of his children, to celebrate his life in unity through a diverse lens of differing beliefs. His headstone was carved by a local sculptor-stone mason, David, who knew that he was a Bahá’í. The headstone is dome-shaped to reflect the dome of the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa. It features a small carved inset with a copy of one of his signature abstract sculptures from the 1970s. It is a fitting tribute to a creative and productive life inspired by his searching and spiritual mind.

________________________

Bridget Macdonald 

Norfolk

January 2024