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Wellesley Tudor Pole (23rd April 1884 – 13th Sept 1968)

Wellesley Tudor Pole comes into the Findhorn story on the journey in 1965 that Peter took with Dorothy and Naomi to help his parents move in Devon. Naomi and Dorothy stayed in Glastonbury at the Chalice Well Guest House which was part of the Chalice Well Trust that Tudor Pole had founded. On his return Peter managed to stay the night in the guest house even though usually, before a major event which was to begin the next day, Tudor Pole liked to be alone. They had a good chat in the evening and Peter found himself giving Wellesley a dressing down over the disorganised nature of the spiritualists in the Glastonbury area, telling him that he, Tudor Pole, was the spiritual guardian of the place and he must do something to coordinate their efforts. All of this is told in Peter’s biography In Perfect Timing, pages 235-236.

Wellesley Tudor Pole seems to have been an extremely sensitive child and the book ‘The Boy who Saw True’ is said to be the story of his childhood. By 1906 he was in touch with a being he called ‘The Sage’ who told him of the extraordinary importance of Glastonbury and its relation to two other sites, Iona and another island (later identified as Devenish in Lough Eire). These were said to be the heart centres of England Scotland and Ireland, respectively and were each connected to the head centres of London, Edinburgh and Dublin. In 1922 Dion Fortune (Violet Firth) arrived at the same information regarding Glastonbury and London. Both she and Tudor Pole seem to have moved in tandem. Both had spent time in Letchworth in the first part of the 20th century. Both held meetings of a spiritualist nature. Mary, Wellesley’s sister, would communicate with a departed friend called ‘A.B.’ and with ‘F.G.’ the Family guide. The Firths held similar gatherings with Violet doing trance work to help her parents. However neither Wellesley nor his sister used trance but always communicated consciously with the entities they reached.

There is no evidence that Tudor Pole and Dion Fortune had much contact with one another although an appeal was sent out for the re-activation of the sacred ‘shrines of Avalon, Iona and the Holy Western Isle, (that) the life of these centres may be rekindled and their spiritual powers released once more.’ Dion Fortune’s name was fifth on the list of 22 people he sent the letter to. He made a note to send her 3 copies to 3 Queensborough Terrace, London, W1. (http://wellesleytudorpole.com/page11.htm)

While Wellesley Tudor Pole lived at Chalice Well House beside the Tor, Dion Fortune owned a house a few hundred meters away on Chilkwell Street, literally just around the corner from him. Writing of another woman, Gertrude Mellor, of a similar interest to them both he says

‘Her methods are not ours… My approach… is a mystical and not an occult approach…. my thought turns to prayer and meditation… and not to any ceremonial ritual or invocation.’

However in June 1940 he wrote a secret memorandum saying:

“‘This is no ordinary war, to be judged and fought on the principles of the historic conflicts of the past. This war is Armageddon, or to use a common phrase, a totalitarian struggle waged not only by the force of Arms on earth, but carried on in full intensity within the spirits, minds and hearts of people everywhere, soldiers and civilians alike. It is a stupendous and almost universal wrestling match to the death between the forces of darkness and the Power of Light – between the demons and God, both sides working through human channels. Our adversaries are possessed by the full potency of the spiritual powers of darkness and are using and being used by them. On our side we have not yet put on the full armour of God.’

The title of this dramatic memorandum was ‘The Fifth and Sixth Columns’, the idea being that physical fifth columns of spies might actually be augmented by ‘sixth columns’ of spiritual infiltrators: hence for instance the astonishing collapse of morale in France and the defeatist moves amongst some British leaders.” http://wellesleytudorpole.com/page11.htm

Dion Fortune used much the same language in a letter to her Fraternity of Light within weeks of this. Since the article quoted is an attempt to prove collaboration between these two spiritually minded people much of the material is irrelevant to our purpose.

As a result of his understanding Tudor Pole managed to persuade the BBC and Winston Churchill to instigate the silent minute at 9.00 pm. This was to be non-sectarian and included support from the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Catholic Primate, the Chief Rabbi and various other spiritual leaders. It is estimated that at one point 8 million people were participating.

Sir George Trevelyan said of him that he was ‘Undoubtedly one of the great seers and adepts of this epoch.‘ http://wellesleytudorpole.com/page16.htm

Other testimonies include

  • Rosamond Lehmann, the celebrated novelist, said: ‘Obviously he was a master.’
  • Helen Degler: ‘He was one of God’s Messengers, entrusted with a holy Mission on our planet‘.
  • Simone Saint Clair: ‘The world owes him a debt that will never be repaid’.
  • Rey d’Aquila: ‘TP’s life was glorified simplicity as a reflection of the Master’s life‘.
  • Ann Moray: ‘W.T.P. is a beacon before us, and a path for our wandering feet‘.

During the First World War Tudor Pole served in the Directorate of Military Intelligence in the Middle East, and, having met Abdul Baha earlier in Cairo was able to work in his interest against the Ottoman Empire, causing General Allenby to change his plans in the Palestine theatre of war. After the war Tudor Pole wrote “Private Dowding” about a young soldier and his afterlife. He began a project to defend the religious people and clerics in Russia who were suffering terrible persecution by the Bolsheviks.

Following World War Two when the BBC stopped sounding the Big Ben chimes at 9.00 pm he received a message that light should replace sound and an amber lamp should be lit with the intention of world peace and so started the Lamplighter Movement in 1964.

He was an archaeologist, a writer, a sensitive and involved with Military Intelligence. His biography has been published by Lorian Press under the title “The Two Worlds of Wellesley Tudor Pole”. He was undoubtedly one of the moving spiritual forces in Britain in the 20th Century and, like Ronald Heaver, was involved with the Middle East campaign. (adapted from the Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley_Tudor_Pole)

Peter writes in his biography of the wrangle between the two who took themselves to be the spiritual forces overlighting Glastonbury and in the saga of the school that Peter was invited to be involved with it may well have been the choice of Heaver as chair person of the committee to buy it that caused Tudor Pole to find the money and buy the school himself.

Peter writes

“All was not well in Glastonbury, however. For some reason there was a spiritual rivalry between Tudor Pole at Chalice Well and Ronald Heaver, chairman of our committee, that had been going on for 40 years. When TP heard of the Glastonbury Foundation’s plans to buy Tor School, he stepped in and raised the money himself so that Chalice Well Trust could buy it instead; just to keep it out of his rival’s hands.. Eileen had several visions relating to the battle between these spiritual giants, and guidance that I was to bring them together, but the result of my efforts to do so was that both of them turned on me, each thinking I was in the other’s camp!” (In Perfect Timing, p. 253)

Which is exactly as Kathleen Fleming had predicted when the initiative began. Peter notes that the Glastonbury Foundation was disbanded, that the original purpose, keeping the Tor School as a spiritual centre and not a brewery, had been achieved and he had spent thousands of miles on the road visiting a lot of the major spiritual figures in Britain which would otherwise not have happened. Such is the way of Spirit.

Wellesley Tudor Pole Photo Chalice Well Trust

Wellesley Tudor Pole Photo Chalice Well Trust

Publications and Media

Private Dowding: A Plain Record of the After-death Experiences of a Soldier …. Dodd, Mead, 1919The Silent Road. Random House, 1960
A Man Seen Afar, Wellesley Tudor Pole; Rosamond Lehmann (1983) [1965]. (revised ed.). Ebury Publishing
Writing on the Ground, Spearman, 1968

Chalice Well Trust website

Wikipedia Wellesley Tudor Pole

You can find other stories about Wellesley Tudor Pole on our website by following this link to his tag.

 

We thank the Findhorn Foundation for the permission to offer this document from their Archive on our website.