In December 2004, the congregation at St Paul’s celebrated the centenary of a Cambridge woman who spent almost all her life without sight or hearing. Simon Brook tells the story of Bessie Jones, who became an inspiration to many disabled people.
Tuesday 21 December 2004, perhaps appropriately the year’s longest night, marks the centenary of the death of Bessie Jones. She was 84 when she died, and had been deaf, dumb and blind for 82 years.
Bessie’s life is commemorated in a stained glass window “erected by her devoted sister Ellen” in St Paul’s Church. The window includes the representation of what has become one of the most noteworthy Pre-Raphaelite paintings – Holman Hunt’s “The Light of the World” – with scenes of Jesus healing the deaf, dumb and blind on either side.
Born Elizabeth Jones, Bessie was the eldest daughter of Cambridge dentist John Jones. Bessie’s life was to become an inspiration to many as an example of how it is possible to adapt to disabilities and live a full life despite them. Her own difficulties were the result of what may have been a severe attack of measles, at the age of two.
Stained glass window in St Paul’s church, with a representation of Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’ in the centre
Despite her blindness, she was able to produce beautifully stitched needlework. She made a purse which was presented to Queen Victoria on the occasion of Prince Albert’s Installation as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1847. The Queen had been told of Bessie’s achievements by the Master of Trinity, Dr Whewell. He was fascinated by Bessie’s ability and made a study of her life. He later wrote in a book about her that she “disclosed a perpetually growing sympathy with the other children of the family. She sat, dressed, walked as they did; even imitated them in holding a book in her hand when they read, and in kneeling when they prayed.” She communicated by a deaf and dumb alphabet, using touch. In recent years, teachers of people with such disabilities have both researched, and taught from, her example.
The year 1847 – the date of Queen Victoria’s visit to Cambridge, her first by train – proved to be a special one. Bessie’s father was appointed “Dentist in Ordinary to the Queen” and he used the newly introduced anaesthetic, ether, for tooth extraction; and Charles Perry, the former Vicar of St Paul’s, was consecrated in Westminster Abbey as the first Bishop of Melbourne, Australia. He preached the sermon on the Sunday morning before Prince Albert‘s Installation in Great St Mary’s. Two years previously, both the station and St Paul’s School had been opened and Queen Victoria, as Head of the Church, had instigated the Parish of St Paul. How apt, then, that Bessie’s memorial window with its special painting should be placed in St Paul’s.
Holman Hunt had first painted “The Light of the World for Keble College, Oxford. He gave his permission for another version in stained glass to be the centre of a memorial to Bessie. This was executed by Messrs Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London.
Hunt’s final version of “The Light of the World” was exhibited around the world, including in Charles Perry’s Diocese of Melbourne, where it was viewed in February 1906, the month after the dedication of Bessie’s memorial. It is now on permanent display in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and was borrowed for the National Gallery Millennium exhibition “Seeing Salvation”. The painting has been used in countless ways to introduce Jesus to people; but for all who see it in the context of Bessie’s memorial, there will always be the challenge of living with disability in this life, and the assurance of resurrection.
As her memorial brass plate concludes:
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” (Isaiah 35:5-6)
Taken from Ely Ensign, December 2004. Used by kind permission.
St Paul's Church, Cambridge, UK 