Sister Evelyn, a 'White Lady'...
... and a heroine who rescued an airman from a burning plane
A warm welcome to the latest edition of In Search of Adela Curtis, a Modern Mystic. I have written before about some of the Sisters and others who followed Adela Curtis and their stories can be read here. The post below is an edited version of a blog I originally wrote a couple of years ago for the Dorset History Centre. It tells the story of Sister Evelyn Bendy, a long term member of the first community to live on this site. At the bottom of the post you will find a link to a recorded session made three years ago, when a number of us told an expanded version of this story through reading letters and diary entries of members of the Bendy family, Miss Curtis and other members of the Christian Contemplatives’ Charity (CCC).
Miss Harriette Evelyn Bendy (1877 – 1961)
Evelyn Bendy was, for around 20 years in the mid 20th century, a member of the community founded just outside Burton Bradstock by Miss Adela Marion Curtis. She was known as Sister Evelyn and she and other members of the Christian Contemplatives’ Charity (CCC) were nicknamed ‘The White Ladies’ because of the flowing white robes they wore. Research has focussed on Sr Evelyn’s time in the community, drawing on unpublished papers, family reminiscences, photos and newspaper articles…
In 1930, Adela Curtis, the Warden and founder of the first community to live in the house and grounds now looked after by the Othona Community, was advertising for people to come and join her ‘Bible Students’ Colony’. A year later, she wrote in her Day Book that she had received a number of enquiries. Among these she particularly mentioned,
‘Miss Bendy another new one, has taken Eve’s End Hut for a year to practise self support on the land.’ [Eve was one of Adela Curtis’ nieces who visited her aunt regularly, although she lived in London most of the time.]
The life offered to those joining the ‘Colony’ was to be a combination of learning in meditation and growing food on the land with the intention of being self-sufficient.
Evelyn Bendy had grown up in London with her widowed mother and two brothers. By 1930 she was living in Cardiff, not far from her younger brother Wilfred, an electrical engineer who was married with two sons, Alan and John. In the 1980s, John wrote his reminiscences of visiting his Aunty Evelyn at the community in the early 1930s:
‘At the bottom of a steeply sloping path we found ‘End Hut’ which had been Aunty Evelyn’s home for over two years. We had a joyful reunion and were shown around the premises – a process which required very little time. The door at the east end opened into a small living room, and at the far end was an even smaller bedroom. No kitchen; no bathroom; no running water; no gas; no electricity. The toilet was a bucket, plus a box of soil parked in a little tent outside. Cooking and lighting were by paraffin, and extra heating in the winter was by hot water bottles of great variety.’
John’s older brother Alan trained in horticulture and at the end of 1938 joined the community as head gardener. Sr Evelyn moved into the main house so that Alan could live in the End Hut. Miss Curtis noted in her diary that on Saturday 31 December of that year,
‘…Alan Bendy arrived as resident gardener & student, to live in End Hut, dine daily at Community House, attend lectures & noon and evening services & draw salary of 37/6 a week.’
War brings sadness
War broke out in September 1939 and in 1940 Alan joined the RAF. Sadly he was reported missing in April 1941 on a flight over the North Sea. On hearing the tragic news, Sr Evelyn wrote to Alan’s mother and brother John, expressing her heartfelt sorrow and at the same time,
‘ I can rejoice that our dear lad is lifted up out of the turmoil and filth of war. His hands are saved from the horror of killing his fellow men, & he made his sacrifice consciously & willingly… Let us thank God that he gave you so sweet a son & me so dear a Godson. Yes, we can bear it & carry on.’
The dramatic rescue of an airman who crash-landed
Evelyn remained in the community for the rest of the war and in March 1945, was involved in a dramatic, life and death incident. In a letter, she told her older brother Harold what had happened…
‘Am sorry to be so long doing your shirt, but hope it will go on for a bit now. I was just going to pack it up yesterday, when a plane crashed in the field opposite and we all went out to see…
It was in flames & I had to go round some barbed wire & over a little wall to get to [the pilot trapped in the plane], but I got there first & the flames were blowing away from me. So I tugged & tugged & he said “Pull again” in a quiet controlled voice, then “pull again, it’s loosening” & he began to heave himself up a bit & just after, up came the others, & I said ‘Come on Rogers”! One more try together & out he came, one boot off & a bare foot with several toes burnt. We all dragged him away as far as we could, & a miraculous car drove by. A stretcher was fetched from our chapel & off they both went to the Hospital at Bridport, & are in good hands & doing well so far… It was a busy day, but we got the boy “Warrant Officer Brown”, bless him.
The story was taken up by the Dorset Daily Echo and their reporter was the first person to tell Sr Evelyn that she had been awarded a British Empire Medal for her bravery.
Having heard about the events of that day from Sr Evelyn herself, the reporter said to her, ‘You must have been very exhausted’.
‘No’, she replied with engaging frankness. ‘I felt most exhilarated.’ Gardening, she explained, had made her a very strong woman. ‘I came here 14 years ago, and I have been working in the garden here ever since.’
Sister Evelyn was an active member of the Community for almost twenty years. It is likely she left in 1950 and went to live with her brother Harold and cousin Alice, who both died in 1955. Evelyn died in 1961 in Herefordshire at the age of 83. The community at Burton Bradstock had come to an end a year before with the death of Miss Curtis, the last remaining person living on site.
It was some 40 years later, when John Bendy was in contact with the Othona Community, that a plaque commemorating both Evelyn and Alan was placed in the chapel, alongside the earlier ones remembering other community members and their founder Miss Curtis.
The recording I mentioned earlier can be found here. Many thanks to Tony Jaques for recording the session and to Andy Howlett for editing it. I am also very grateful to the following people who took part with me in this recording that chronicled the involvement of Evelyn and Alan Bendy in the life of the Christian Contemplatives’ Charity:
Ali Bendy, daughter of John and great niece of Evelyn Bendy; Clare Gough; Louise Heatley; Andy Howlett; and Tony Jaques.