[2] Scholar Moojan Momen has identified the first account in the West as being January 8, 1845 as an exchange of British diplomatic reports not published in the newspapers.

"[5] The first newspaper/public reference to the religious movement began with coverage of the Báb which occurred in The Times on 1 November 1845 which relied on Muslim reactions to the new religion.

[10][11] Nevertheless, coverage in newspapers at the time often echoed the Persian government's view blaming the Babís and Babís in large numbers were in fact executed as a result,[5] however as the months dragged on reports of the deaths of large numbers of Babis progress from hundreds in Tehran by early of November, 1852,[12] to tens of thousands in the south of the country by late December.

These two Baháʼís were arrested and executed because the Imám-Jum'ih at the time owed them a large sum of money for business relations and instead of paying them would confiscate their property.

He did manage to motivate Persian merchants to defend their innocence and there was a brief respite in their suffering which was witnessed by Edward Slack then serving in the British Bengal civil service, memoirs of which he published in 1882.

[19] In addition to such coverage, Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University produced significant materials on the history of the religion and in April 1890 was granted four interviews with Baháʼu'lláh after he had arrived in the area of Akka and left the only detailed description by a Westerner.

[23] Other noteworthy people who became early members of the religion included George Townshend (an Irishman, but Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom) and Scotsman John Esslemont.

On September 10 he made his first public appearance before an audience at the City Temple, London, with the English translation spoken by Wellesley Tudor Pole.

[25][26] ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to the British Isles, visiting Baháʼís in Liverpool, London, Edinburgh, Oxford, and Bristol in 1912–13.

[3] During this time notable Britons who became Baháʼís included Richard St. Barbe Baker - forester, environmental activist, and author - who joined the religion around 1924.

[32] Mark Tobey, an American artist who stayed in Britain from 1930–38, held Baháʼí study classes in Dartington Hall in Devon and lectures in Torquay.

As a result of this activity two famous artists became Baháʼís: Bernard Leach, the world-famous potter, in about 1940, and Reginald Turvey, a prominent South African painter, in 1936.

[33][34] In 1946, a great pioneer movement began implementing the Tablets of the Divine Plan with sixty percent of the British Baháʼí community eventually relocating.

Intrantionally this effort would take the Baháʼí Faith to Scotland and Wales and raising the numbers of Local Assemblies in the British Isles from five to twenty-four, among which four being in the large cities of Edinburgh, Belfast, and Cardiff.

[40] In 1955 Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, posthumously described three individuals as the "three luminaries of the Irish, English and Scottish Baháʼí communities".

It was held in the Royal Albert Hall and chaired by Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga, where approximately 6,000 Baháʼís from around the world gathered.

Recently, British Baháʼís have been involved in Agenda 21 activities in the UK,[59] and have established an Institute for Social Cohesion as an agency of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United Kingdom responding to the challenges of the large diversity of the citizens in the vicinity of Hackney Central, and Britain in general including six Parliamentary seminars and two major conferences from 2001 to 2004.

[60] In February 2009 two open letters were published with lists including British citizens registering their opposition to the trial of Baháʼí leaders in Iran.

The first was when some British were among the two hundred and sixty seven non-Baháʼí Iranian academics, writers, artists, journalists and activists from some 21 countries including Iran signed an open letter of apology posted to Iranian.com and stating they were "ashamed" and pledging their support for achieving the rights detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the Baháʼís in Iran.

[61] The second letter a few weeks later was when entertainers David Baddiel, Bill Bailey, Morwenna Banks, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jo Brand, Russell Brand, Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr, Jack Dee, Omid Djalili, Sean Lock, Lee Mack, Alexei Sayle, Meera Syal, and Mark Thomas said in an open letter printed in The Times of London of the Baháʼí leaders to be on trial in Iran: "In reality, their only 'crime', which the current regime finds intolerable, is that they hold a religious belief that is different from the majority….