The Silence 4th March – 4th September 1926
by Museum Director Zara Matthews
On the 4th March 1926 Kate Firth, one of the founding members of the Panacea Society and close friend to Mabel Barltrop, dramatically left the Society. The following six months was known as “The Silence”.
The Society recorded The Silence in a separate volume, which was printed but never published. “By Divine Command the Scripts for March 1926 are printed but not published until such time as matters contained therein are adjusted.”
Octavia wrote to Rachel Fox on 5th March 1926 ”I think you ought to hear it from me just the fact that …. and ….. have left the Visitation”
Rachel writes in HWBJ part 1 (p246-)
“in spite of the natural personal suffering which the rest of her friends shared acutely, far from being shaken by the event, the Foundations of the Panacea Society were stronger than ever. We were shown that we that we should never have been able to realize how there could have been a War in Heaven, as described in Rev. xii, or how there could be a devil in Heaven, had this rebellion taken place.”
Kate and Leonard “have chosen to receive and embrace the knowledge of evil. … This is the lowest evil, because it is evil adulterated with artificial good.”
Kate Firth
Kate was born in 1865 in Yorkshire, into a large, well-off family. She was the seventh surviving child of Charles and Jane Scholes, her older sister Henrietta (Hettie) also became a member of the Panacea Society. Kate, never Catherine that we know, married Harry Firth, a stocks and shares broker in 1894. They had one child, Geoffrey. By 1911 both Kate and Hettie were both widowed and living in Bedford. Kate became friends with Mabel Barltrop, also a widow and whose son Adrian was a similar age to Kate’s son Geoffrey. In 1917 Mabel was receiving messages from God which included the “sufferings” of Hettie Leach.
In 1923 Hettie left Bedford and re-married though remained a member of the Panacea Society and that same year Kate purchased No 11 Newnham Road. The name of the house was changed to ‘The Haven’. Openings were made in the garden walls backing onto Mabel’s house, 12 Albany Road, allowing Kate and Mabel (now Octavia) and other members of the Society to move easily between the houses.
In November 1925, four days after Hettie died in Bournemouth, Mr Leonard Squire Tucker arrived in Bedford.
Leonard Squire Tucker
Leonard Squire Tucker (1878 – 1950) was born in London, his father was a chemical merchant and his mother a spiritualist medium, his grandmother Bertha Squires a “healer”. He had served during the First World War and in 1925 described himself to Octavia as “artist, middle aged, single”.
Kate and Leonard became close very quickly. Octavia enjoyed hosting musical evenings and encouraged Leonard and Kate to prepare something for an upcoming party - Leonard singing to Kate’s piano accompaniment. In January 1926 they attended the theatre together, alone, which Octavia cautioned her about “as it might cause comment”. Emily Goodwin was more direct and told Kate that she should not have gone without permission from the ‘Divine Mother’.
Kate’s diary records how in January 1926 “Mr Squire [Leonard Squire Tucker] came to practice his songs. He has a beautiful voice and it was a great treat. He also recited for me and he must have been wonderful before the War”.
The diary records that Kate’s son Geoffrey liked Leonard very much, but Mabel/Octavia and Emily Goodwin warned Kate against him. In February Kate writes “it is all very upsetting”.
Leonard did not agree with many aspects of the Society’s beliefs he had grown up in a spiritualist family, and he, like his grandmother, practiced healing. He was sceptical of Octavia’s healing powers and particularly challenged Emily Goodwin as the ‘Instrument of the Divine Mother’.
On 4th March 1926 Kate “withdrew” from the Society and moved to London with Leonard. They married later that year and continued their spiritual journey together; Leonard set up his own healing ministry in the ‘Higher Thought Centre’ in London.
Kate Firth had offered the use of The Haven to the Society, and when she left gave the Society one month to remove all their items. Rachel Fox records in ‘How we built Jerusalem’ that the use of the garden (which was much larger than Mabel’s) was particularly missed. Emily Goodwin, as the Instrument of the Divine Mother, was reported to say “You feel you are losing the beautiful garden, but really you are shutting the evil out”.
Kate’s lawyer sent instruction to Octavia that the openings in the walls between The Haven and Albany Road were to be bricked up, which was duly done. The Society used No’s 5 and 8 Albany Road as temporary offices, until August 1926 when the Panacea Society acquired The Haven. The bricked up openings to The Haven and 12 Albany Road were opened up once more. A special service of thanksgiving was held in the Garden Room and the Blessed Water was sprinkled in the corners of all the rooms.
This was not the end however; Emily Goodwin paid a member who lived in London to spy on Kate and Leonard, and report back which they did until 1933. Kate died in 1934 and Leonard in 1950.
