2003-06-20 — The passing of Knight of Bahá'u'lláh Ursula Samandari (b. Ursula Newman 29 December, 1909 in Mitcham, Surrey, England) at her pioneering post in Buea, Cameroon. She was buried at the Bahá'í Centre in Buea following a funeral service which included prayers, songs and a eulogy.
She learned of the Faith from Richard St Barbe Baker, Hasan Balyuzi and Dorothy Ferraby and became a believer after two years.
She first pioneered to St Ives, UK in 1945, along with Kathleen Brown and Jessica Young she was the first to pioneer in the British Isles in the Six Year Plan.
She served on the Spiritual Assembly of London and in 1948 moved to Dublin where she was a member of the first Local spiritual assembly and served as the secretary to George Townshend. Ursula served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles from 1945 until 1951. In 1949 she moved to Belfast where she met Mihdi Samandari whom she married in 1951.
In 1953 she and Dr. Mihdi Samandari moved to Nairobi, Kenya, and about a year later in November of 1953, they re-located to Mogadishu, Somalia where they stayed until 1971. [KoB49-50; BWNS 230]
Ursula served on the Regional Spiritual Assembly of North East Africa from 1961 until 1970.
At the request of the Universal House of Justice, they had pioneered to Cameroon where she was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly in 1972. She served from 1972 until 1986 with a short interruption of service. Mihdi served on the Continental Board of Copunsellors in the 1970s. [BWNS230, BW'03-'04pg237; UK Bahá'í Journal Vol 20 No 3 Sep/Oct 2003]
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