My grandfather, my mother’s father, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond, was in the Royal Navy and my mother’s childhood and adolescence were unorthodox and yet privileged. Sometimes my grandmother, Elsa, and some of the family accompanied him on postings but often they stayed at home, either in London or in the much loved rambling family home in Yorkshire. My mother, Mary, went intermittently to school but learned a great deal at home too and ended up having a much broader education than many of her contemporaries. She spoke fluent French and after finishing her education she went to Germany where she became fluent in German.
She then filled her time with many, often worthwhile, activities. But she was not satisfied and, in her early 20s, she accepted an invitation to visit a friend in Egypt, thinking a change of scene might help. There, she was invited to an Oxford Group houseparty and decided to see what it was like. However, she did not agree with the emphasis on measuring your life against absolute moral standards. So she left in a huff. Later that day, she was at a dinner party where the guests were ridiculing the Oxford Group. My mother, who loved supporting the underdog in an argument, disagreed with them and ended up by saying, ‘And I think I’ll go back’. So she did. That was the beginning of a lifelong adventure.
At the end of 1932 she was invited by Frank Buchman to join a varied group of people going to the United States and Canada for an Oxford Group campaign across both countries. She had never done anything like this before and accepted. As one did in those days, she wrote home regularly with accounts of all she was doing. My grandmother kept all the letters and my mother found them while clearing up the house. She too kept them, and I found them while clearing up my parents’ house!
They are full of life and of her unvarnished views on things – that of a fairly green and privileged 24 year old but very racy and full of life, and in some places they represent the thinking of the time, some of which is different now.
Mother went on to invest her whole life, all over the world, with my father Roland Wilson after they married, in what had become MRA and, after her death, Initiatives of Change. She also wrote a series of books for children and young people called God’s Hand in History, which have been read and used in schools in many countries.
The Letters
10 December, 1932
15 December, 1932
24 December, 1932
25-30 December, 1932
3 January, 1933
4 January, 1933
11 January, 1933
22 January, 1933
1 February, 1933
6-10 February, 1933
16 February, 1933
25 February, 1933
8 March, 1933
11 March, 1933
18 March, 1933
24 March, 1933
31 March - 2 April, 1933
10 April, 1933
13 April, 1933 (from Mary's mother)
19 April, 1933
24-25 May, 1933
English
