John Willoughby Butler Bean (1881-1969) was the General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Australia, 1919-1924. The marriage solemnized by Leadbeater at St Alban’s Liberal Catholic Cathedral in Sydney in 1922 between Dr John Bean and Isabelle John (nee Gater)(1862-1939) attracted some (amused) media attention.
Mullumbimby Star (New South Wales) 16 March 1922
Bean was born in Bathurst (New South Wales) and educated at All Saints’ College, Bathurst; Brentwood Grammar School; and Bath College, England. He studied at the University of Cambridge (MD, ChB, BA, MA) and obtained further qualifications in medicine and surgery in England (LRCP, MRCS).
Bean was the brother of Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (1879-1968), the Australian World War 1 war correspondent and historian, and the Editor of the 12-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bean
Bean resigned from the Theosophical Society in 1924 and thereafter practiced medicine in Sydney and Brisbane. He became a Baha’i, and worked actively for the promotion of the faith.
Dr Bean attending to a patient, Hobart, 1943
Isabelle Bean (1862-1939) had been born in London and trained and worked as a nurse until she migrated to Australia. In 1886 she married in Sydney Erik Gustaf Edelfelt with whom undertook travels collecting natural specimens in New Guinea before settling in Brisbane (Queensland). Following Edenfelt’s death in 1895, she joined the Theosophical Society. She married William George John (1852-1916) in 1901. John served as General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Australia, 1902-1916.
Mrs Bean served as Assistant General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Australia, 1902-1924. She was the first head of the Order of the Round Table in Australia, and worked for the Order of the Star in the East.
Sydney Morning Herald (New South Wales) 18 May 1939
For Isabelle Bean, see: H. J. Gibbney “Bean, Isabelle (1862–1939)” in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, entry available on-line at: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bean-isabelle-5167
C.W. LEADBEATER 