My responsibilities at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London included The Wednesday Club, for people under 35 years of age who were studying or working in business or professions. We met at the Waldegrave Hall, Duke Street in Marylebone and Mayfair connecting Wigmore Street and Grosvenor Square. We met for a light supper and a program every Wednesday night. We had many visiting speakers and social activities. It was a lively fellowship of people from all over the world who were beginning their lives in London. Lots of friendship were made and couples were married.

I also had the title of Minister to Students who were enrolled in the all the educational institutions that abounded in London. There were medical students at the various hospitals, engineering, liberal arts and science students at the universities, law students at the Inns of Court, music students at the Royal College of Music, the Trinity College of Music and other academies. Eventually I became Chaplain to the Polytechnic of Central London which is now the University of Westminster. It began in 1838 as a trade school for working people and a YMCA. It excelled in photography education and housed the first movie theater in London in 1896 and grew into architecture, building, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, management, surveying, town planning, commerce, social studies, all sciences and computer technology, languages and law, communication courses and other departments. It also provided social and athletic activities in an Institute with a Christian Fellowship and devotional services.

Antoinette and I met a whole host of fascinating people at the Polytechnic. One was Princess Alexandra, Lady Studd (1879-1974) who was the daughter of Prince Paul Lieven of Imperial Russia. She escaped from St. Petersburg after the Bolshevik revolution in a dangerous and adventurous journey via Baku and the Caspian Sea through Mesopotamia. She subsequently married Sir John Edward Kynaston Studd, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1928. She was an ardent evangelical Christian and always carried Gospel tracts which she gave out to all whom she met.

I had an office at 70 Great Portland Street and another at Marylebone Road opposite Madam Tussard’s Waxworks. I hosted group meetings, related to the Students’ Union officers, faculty and visited residence halls. It was a time of great turmoil over the Vietnam War and I had to deal with Maoist and Marxist students who were always protesting.

After our wedding in South Carolina we celebrated with our London friends at a Thanksgiving Service in All Souls and a reception afterwards at the Polytechnic.