English interest in the Waldensians dates to the Reformation, when stories of their sufferings were included in John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments, popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The 1655 massacre prompted a collection of over £38,000, which was then a massive amount of money, for the relief of the survivors, some of which was invested for an ongoing pension. This support was stopped by Charles II but later revived under Queen Anne. Financial support was sent to the Waldensian Church until 1797.
After the fall of Napoleon, English churchmen rediscovered the Waldensians, now living in dire poverty, as the Kingdom of Sardinia reimposed the restrictions which Napoleon had removed. One of the first such English clergy was Thomas Sims, who published his Brief Memoir Respecting the Waldenses soon after a visit to the Waldensian Valleys in 1814. The most successful work of this kind was the combined travelogue and history published by William Stephen Gilly (1789–1855) under the title Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont (1824). Gilly’s work went through multiple editions and inspired the establishment of a committee for the relief of the communities and their pastors. By chance, Gilly’s work came to the hands of an army officer, John Charles Beckwith (1789–1862) whose injuries prevented further service.
Beckwith visited the Waldensian valleys in the autumn of 1827, and committed himself to helping the Vaudois for the rest of his life. With money raised from abroad and from the Vaudois themselves, as well as his own wealth, Beckwith built and improved schools of all levels, for both boys and girls; improved the state of church buildings and pastors’ houses; and helped in the founding of a hospital. However, his “Anglican” preferences showed in Beckwith’s attempts to persuade the Waldensians to make their moderator a lifetime appointment – in effect a bishop – and to adopt a liturgy like that of the Church of England. Neither of these initiatives were accepted.