Stanley P. Bolton
Born: Unknown
Death: Unknown
Place of Birth: Australia
Location of Death: Australia
Burial Location: No cemetery details
“The first Bahá’í Summer School in Australia was held at ‘Bolton Place,’ Yerrinbool, N. S. W., at the kind invitation of Drs. Stanley and Mariette Bolton. It was with the greatest joy that the sessions were opened on Sunday, January 9, 1938. The chairman, Dr. Stanley Bolton, asked Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn, Australian pioneers, to open with prayers, after which he welcomed the friends assembled.[1]
In 1947, the Australian community had commenced its first systematic teaching plan. It was to be six years duration, and so provide a framework for activities until 1953. The summer school became an occasion to learn of the progress that the community was making, and of the requirements of the plan at the time. In 1950, midway through the six year plan, the school committee described the summer school just passed as a “consolidating influence in the life of the Australian Bahá’í community”, and “an institution playing an important role in the six year teaching plan”. Stanley P. Bolton had conducted a study of Bahá’í Administration, and Meg Degotardi and Elsie Griffith (possibly the first Perth Bahá’í to attend a summer school) together had run a course on “The New Civilization”. [2]
Australian Stanley P. Bolton was the first Bahá’í to arrive in Tonga — he arrived on January 25, 1954. For his services in bringing the Faith to Tonga, Dr. Bolton received the accolade Knight of Bahá’u’lláh from the then head of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi.
Source:
1 The Bahá’í World. Kidlington, Oxford: George Ronald Publisher. Volume 7
2 Hassall, Graham. Yerrinbool Bahá’í School 1938-1988: An Account of the First Fifty Years Canberra, Australia: CPN Publications, 1988
Image:
Baha’i World Centre Archives
