BARBARA CRAIG WILLIAMS (nee BROWN), 1941 – 2020, was born in Adelaide, Australia, one of five children to Gordon and Beryl Brown. Excelling as a student and elected Head Prefect of a large high school, she chose – as did many of her contemporaries in MRA – not to pursue tertiary studies in medicine but to serve a calling within the movement as a full-time volunteer and activist.
Invited to India in 1961, she was part of the support team when Rajmohan Gandhi launched his campaign for a ‘clean, strong, united India’. In her twenties she moved onto Britain, where she worked a secretary to several senior leaders of the movement for five years. Returning to Australia in 1968, she joined the team presenting a musical review ‘Wake Up Matilda’, which included her husband-to-be John Williams. They married in 1970 and dedicated several years in Papua New Guinea, interacting with emerging political and social leaders as they prepared for Independence in 1975. They served as hosts of MRA centres in Australia and UK, before settling in their own home Melbourne and raising a family, Nicholas and Rachel. Challenged by chronic kidney disease over 30 years, Barbara served others with practical care and spiritual depth for many years to the last weeks of her life.
