The Messenger House Trust: archives

This collection is uncatalogued. The following is an interim description which may be altered when detailed cataloguing takes place in future.

Records relating to the organisation and running of The Messenger House Trust, founded by Dr Josephine Lomax-Simpson in 1970. Records include a large number of case notes (some of which are within the josephine Lomax-Simpson archive, see PP/JLS at Wellcome Collection), annual reports, meeting notes, financial records, correspondence, and related records. Also includes 74 digital audio files.

c.1970-1990

9 boxes

The Messenger House Trust was founded by Josephine Lomax-Simpson in 1970. Lomax-Simpson used money she had inherited from her mother to purchase a property on Malcolm Road, Wimbledon, which became the first of nine houses established between 1970 and 1981 to provide accommodation for single mothers and their babies, and homeless young men. She called the house the ‘Messenger House’ in memory of her mother, and created the Messenger House Trust. In 1970 the aims of the charity were to ‘promote the physical, moral and mental welfare of mothers (married or unmarried) and their children who were in need of resettlement or rehabilitation’, and also to ‘care for deprived children and young persons in need’.

The following related archives are held at Wellcome Collection:

PP/JLS: Josephine Lomax-Simpson

SA/GAS: Group Analytic Society

PP/BIE: Joshua Bierer

Acquired by Wellcome in March 2026 prior to the closure of the Mulberry Bush Third Space (MB3) archive service. This collection was originally acquired by the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre between 1994 and 1999. Ownership transferred by the Planned Environment Therapy Trust (PETT) to the Mulberry Bush Organisation at the end of December 2018, at which point it joined the Mulberry Bush Third Space (MB3) archive service.

None expected.

The copyright status of material created by Messenger House Trust / Josephine Lomax-Simpson is unknown; it may have been transferred to Mulberry Bush Third Space archive service (MB3) at the point of transfer from the Planned Environment Therapy Trust (PETT) Archive and Study Centre, but no paperwork has been provided to validate this. The copyright in all other material is held by a range of rights holders. You are free to use the material in any way that is permitted by copyright exceptions and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights holder.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Due to ongoing work to improve our collections management systems we are unable to facilitate access to uncatalogued material until 2027.