On the last day of the convention, Brother Rutherford announced that a Northern European Office was to be established in Copenhagen, headed by a Scotsman, William Dey. The office would supervise the Society’s activities in Scandinavia and the Baltic States and “especially encourage and advance the public preaching of the Kingdom message.”

Brother Dey, a bachelor, had been a Bible Student since 1913. He was the right man for the job. He had left his position as tax director in London to oversee the Northern European Office. He was energetic, persevering, and driven by great love for the truth. He had good experience from serving in Britain, where congregation colporteur work had already been organized for several years. The brothers liked him, and soon he was known by the name Big Scotsman.

Brother Dey wasted no time in organizing the preaching work. Poul Reinseth was appointed service director for Copenhagen and supervised the witness work in the capital. The city was divided into six areas, each with a responsible area service leader. Book depots were set up in private homes so that it was no longer necessary for each publisher to trek to the branch office to get his literature supply. The witnessing work now took on a robust complexion.

Brother Dey kept busy. In his first three and a half months as overseer, he logged 9,000 miles [14,000 km] in Scandinavia and the Baltic States, organizing the evangelizing work. Einer Benggaard relates a small episode from this activity: “In a congregation in northern Jutland, we had arranged a little assembly to help organize our brothers and sisters for the house-to-house work. Following a talk by Brother Dey, we received instructions on how we should do the work, what we should say to the people, and so forth. Territory and literature were assigned, and we went out the door, most with our hearts in our mouths! As Brother Dey and I walked down the main street, we saw two sisters standing in a gateway crying. We took them along with us, and soon there was sunshine in their eyes again!”

Several of the brothers and sisters who worked at the office and depot, which was in an old apartment building, had lodgings scattered around Copenhagen. Brother Dey thought that there ought to be a “proper” Bethel Home where all could live and eat together at the same place. So, up on the sixth floor, right under the rafters, small storage rooms were cleared out, the floors varnished, the walls papered, and the rooms furnished. When the job was completed, Einer Benggaard, Simon Petersen, and another brother each had a cozy, if somewhat primitive, bedroom.

[Picture on page 88]

Brother Dey and Brother Rutherford at Kastrup Airport in 1927

[Picture on page 89]

William Dey, overseer of the Northern European Office, and Albert West, branch overseer in Estonia until 1930, when he became Dey’s secretary