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| Father Trevor Huddleston by David Litchfield, 2011. It hangs in the Great Bedfordians Gallery at The Higgins Bedford. |
Father Trevor Huddleston was born in 1913 in Bedford. He became an Anglican priest and monk, an internationally known Anti-Apartheid
campaigner and a best selling author.
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| 36 Chaucer Road, where Trevor Huddleston was born and lived until he was 4 years old. |
Trevor was born to Ernest Huddleston and Elsie Smith on the 15th June 1913 at 36 Chaucer Road, Bedford. Ernest, Trevor’s father was an Indian Army Officer, who had been born in the Punjab, but educated in Bedford where most of his family lived, being one of twelve children. Ernest joined the merchant Navy at 14 and rose to Commander of the Royal Indian Navy, later serving in the Indian Civil Service. He married Elsie on the 4th August 1904 in St. Paul’s Church in Bedford. Elsie was from a prominent Anglo-Argentinian family, and they had met when they were just children both at school here in Bedford. They had their first child, Barbara in 1909, and then Trevor was born fours year later, but the family only stayed until Trevor was four when they moved to Golders Green in North London. Having completed his High School education, Huddleston became a pupil at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford University until 1931. He spent the next couple of years studying Theology at Wells Theological College where he was ordained as a Priest in 1937. In 1939 he joined the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican religious order, based at Mirfield in Yorkshire. He took his vows to become a monk in 1941 at the age of 28. Two years later he was asked to go to South Africa to assist the Communities mission there.
In 1943 Trevor was sent to Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South
Africa as the Parish Priest where he served the community for 13 years. In 1949
Huddleston was elected Leader of the Community of the Resurrection in South
Africa and was made Superintendent of St Peter’s School, known as the ‘Black
Eton of South Africa’. He set up homeless shelters, schooling and feeding
programmes and even an Olympic Sized swimming pool.
Shortly after he arrived in South Africa he met Desmond Tutu who was just a boy. Here is Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaking about their first meeting and how they got to know one another.
Huddleston also met the famous Jazz musician and trumpet player Hugh Masekela – giving him his first trumpet and later one from the infamous Louis Armstrong as a gift to Hugh, which he played in the Jazz band created by Huddleston at St. Peter’s School. You can hear Huddleston tell the complete story in his interview on Desert Island Discs here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mfpj
Here is video of Hugh Masekela singing and playing ‘Bring
Him Back Home’ (Nelson Mandela)
With the passing into legislation of the Group Areas Act in
1950, Huddleston, along with Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph and Ruth First became
involved in protests against forced removals in Sophiatown.
The protests, along with Huddeston’s decision to close down
St Peter’s School, rather than handing it over for government control under the
Bantu Education Act, passed in 1953, brought him in regular conflict with the
authorities.
Here Huddleston speaks about when he first met Nelson
Mandela:
“Nelson Mandela came into my life directly when the
Government decided that all black spots that was areas occupied by blacks too
close to the white areas must be removed and my parish was the first, so Nelson
came to join the protest against what was known as the Western Areas Removal
Scheme. I never had the chance to follow up a deep friendship with Nelson
because he was restricted and banned, but it is marvellous to have known him
and seen him in action because he was not a demagogue, he was not a man of violence,
he was the first black lawyer to practice in Johannesburg”.
On the first day of removals on 9 February 1955, 2000
police officers ousted 100 families to Meadowlands. Trevor witnessed increasing
persecution from Apartheid laws, and the injustice of 65,000 people being
forcibly removed from their homes in Sophiatown. A new white suburb was built
over the rubble and renamed Triomf (meaning Triumph) by the government.
Huddleston witnessed the razing of black communities in the
African townships, and the arrest of Nelson Mandela and 155 members of the
African National Congress in 1956. He appealed to the Community and the
Anglican Church in England for help, but fearing he would be imprisoned or
forcibly expelled from South Africa, they recalled him to England.
As a result Huddleston earned his South African nickname
‘Makhalipile’ or dauntless one, named after a bold warrior who adopted another
people when their leaders were lost or captured.
Before leaving South Africa, Huddleston attended the
Congress of the People at Kliptown, on the 26th June 1955. He was awarded the
Isitwalandwe medal, the highest award given by the African National Congress
(ANC) to people who have made an outstanding contribution to the liberation
struggle of South Africa for his work in protesting against the removals in
Sophiatown. This Congress also agreed the Freedom Charter for South Africa, on
which Huddleston was included as an endorsement of the Charter.
Huddleston continued to campaign and published his book
Naught for your Comfort in 1956 to raise awareness against Apartheid, selling a
quarter of a million copies worldwide.
He was a founding member of the Anti-Apartheid movement,
becoming Vice President and later President, when the international campaign
against apartheid was at its peak.
On the 21st March 1960, 50 black people were killed when
police opened fire on a "peaceful" protest in the South African
township of Sharpeville. Huddleston and other campaign leaders called for
people to boycott products from South Africa in protest.
Following the Sharpeville Massacre the ANC was banned and
this led the African leaders to more extreme measures of getting their message
across.
On the 12 June 1964 Nelson Mandela was jailed for life, at the court hearing he defended himself with the following words:
"I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites."
This was the second time Nelson Mandela had been tried for
high treason - in 1956 he was charged but after a four year trial the case was dropped.
At this trial Mandela was convicted of Treason and sent to Robben Island prison
for life imprisonment.
During the many years of campaigning Huddleston continued
his work as a priest. In 1960 he was able to return to Africa and became Bishop
of Masasi in Tanzania, then in 1968 he returned to England and became Bishop of
Stepney. In 1978 he was appointed Bishop of Mauritius and then Archbishop of
the Province of the Indian Ocean. Alongside this he continued his work as the
President of the Anti-Apartheid Campaign.
Trevor had tirelessly campaigned for Nelson Mandela’s
release from Robben Island prison, and finally saw him freed in 1990. The
ruling National Party in South Africa realised that it was time for change and
in February 1989, PW Botha was forced to step aside as prime minister in favour
of the more liberal FW de Klerk. This saw the release of Nelson Mandela from
Robben Island Prison on the 11th February 1990.
Archbishop Trevor Huddleston gave a speech at the 1990 Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute to Free South Africa concert held on the 16th April at Wembley stadium, London. This celebrated Nelson Mandela’s freedom after 27 years in prison. You can watch Archbishop Trevor Huddleston’s speech that he gave to thousands of people at Wembley celebrating the release of Mandela below.
In 1994 Huddleston would see his friend Nelson Mandela become the first freely elected black President Of South Africa. Huddleston died in 1998, knowing that his life’s ambition to see the end of the discrimination of Apartheid had been achieved. He was Knighted for his work in 1998.
Nelson Mandela honoured the passing of his supporter and friend by
sharing the following about Huddleston’s life and work:
"He brought hope, sunshine and comfort to the poorest
of the poor. He was not only a leader in the fight against oppression. He was
also father and mentor to many leaders of the liberation movement, most of whom
now occupy leading positions in all spheres of public life in our country. His
memory will live in the hearts of our people. "
A bronze bust of Trevor Huddleston was crafted by sculptor Ian Walters and is on display in Bedford. Nelson Mandela officially dedicated the bust on 7th April 2000 in Bedford Town Centre and in his speech he said the following in tribute to Huddleston:
“I wanted to pay tribute to one of the greats of the
liberation struggle against one of the cruellest ordeals of racial oppression
our country has ever seen. I owe this debt to the Anti-Apartheid Movement and
to Father Huddleston in particular. It is a great honour for me to be here to
say to him, thankyou ”.
It is for his contribution to the Anti-Apartheid movement,
as a freedom fighter, co-campaigner and activist alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela that Huddleston deserves to be
remembered, not just by the people of Bedford, but across the world.
Written by Lydia Saul, Keeper of Social History
