Before the London Temple was completed in 1958, the United Kingdom's membership of about 14,000 was organized in districts and few members had been to a temple.
Among those looking forward to the blessings of a temple sealing was the family of Derek A. Cuthbert, an early leader who was later sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy where he served until his death in 1991.
The announcement of a temple for England in 1952 brought a great boost in family history work that same year, he noted, and "the years 1953 to 1955 were some of my most productive in terms of genealogical research." (The Second Century: Latter-day Saints in Great Britain, Vol. 1, 1937-87).
The temple groundbreaking "was a moment of great significance . . . for countless children of God who could soon receive the sacred and saving ordinances at this very spot," he recorded. Later, he was filled with a "new resolve to serve the Lord and prepare my family for the day when we would enter the London Temple and become an eternal family."
Family history work increased as members prepared themselves to be sealed as families and to their ancestors. "Ever since the temple project began, there had been a new spirit of commitment and service among the members, . . ." he said. "It seemed as though there was a sacred bond between us all."
That sacred bond was extended when the temple was dedicated three years later. The Cuthbert family was the first to be sealed within its solemn precincts.
After the parents were sealed, an experience described as "the fulfillment of our dreams," "our children were brought in to join us around the altar and they looked like little angels, being all dressed in white. They were sealed to us for eternity and we shed tears of joy."
Within two years a stake had been organized and in three years Derek Cuthbert was himself president of a second new stake.
Today, the United Kingdom has more than 179,000 members in 45 stakes, and many of them, like the Cuthbert family, retain strong spiritual ties to the London temple. A second temple in the United Kingdom, the Preston England Temple, was dedicated in 1998.
