President Knorr had been expected for the dedication, but his 25,000-mile tour of Africa and Europe prevented his arrival in this country until June, when he was able to inspect the finished product of the many, many months of planning. On that occasion he made arrangements for a notable development in the field of schooling, a field in which the Society’s administration had taken a keen interest ever since 1943, when the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead was organized. This new development was the provision of the Kingdom Ministry School for special instruction of appointed men in the theocratic organization at district, circuit and congregation levels. Since there were at the time some 900 congregations in Britain, with occasional changes in presiding overseers, more than three years would elapse before all would have taken the necessary course.

That the brothers viewed attendance at this course as a great privilege may be learned from the fact that they were prepared to jeopardize their secular employment in order to be present at the school at the time they were invited. To obtain four weeks’ leave from secular employment was not an easy thing. Some chose to show the Society’s invitation letter to their employers, and in some cases employers were so impressed with this provision of four weeks’ instruction and board without financial cost that they were quite happy to make their contribution to a religious organization whose aims were so evidently laudable. Some even paid their employees full wages while they were attending the school. Other brothers ran into difficulties. A few lost their jobs because of attending the school against the wishes of their employers. One Sheffield brother ended the course with no assured income for the future. Later, however, he got a job much better than the one from which he was discharged. A number who did not lose their jobs necessarily made material sacrifices to receive the spiritual benefits of this schooling, and many congregations were alive to the need in this respect and were glad to offer material help to families whose breadwinners were away receiving instruction from which all in the congregations would benefit. Later, the situation was eased somewhat when the school course was shortened in a number of ways so that it could be completed in two weeks, and its facilities were extended to provide instruction, not alone for presiding overseers, but also for other older men in the congregations.

The branch office in Britain itself was prepared for greater expansion. As the Bethel family had increased in number and was now augmented by two dozen or more Kingdom Ministry School students, supervision of the home, farm, factory and field service became more demanding.