Harold Bridger: archives

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

Correspondence, publications, counselling records, patient files, training records, testing materials, field notes, minutes and reports, consultancy records, school books, photographs, video interviews, research, studies and conference, seminar and workshop papers relating to Harold Bridger's life and work covering the years 1927-2005. The records largely represent Bridger's roles as a psychoanalyst, a founder and consultant at Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and a member of professional organisations and institutions and an educational and vocational counsellor.

1927-2005

Uncatalogued: 139 boxes; 4 audio cassette tapes; 2 folders; 266 digital items

Harold Bridger (1909-2005) was born in Tavistock Crescent London on 15 May 1909, the oldest of five children. His father came from Russia and his mother was born in England, a child of Polish migrants. Bridger attended Marylebone Grammar School and later studied mathematics at University College London. After university, he went on to teach mathematics at Bablake School in Coventry.

During the early years of the Second World War Bridger commanded a search light battery in Coventry and then an anti-aircraft battery on the Island of Hoy. He later transferred to the War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs) and was closely associated with its development and use of group methods. The WOSBs were a scheme devised by British Army psychiatrists such as Wilfred Bion, John Rickman and Eric Trist whereby new officers were selected based on a range of psychological assessments, intelligence tests, leaderless group tasks and interviews. Bridger joined the WOSBs in 1942 as a Military Testing Officer.

In 1944 Bridger was appointed commanding officer at Hollymoor Hospital in Birmingham, alongside S.H Foulkes and Tom Main to conduct the second Northfield experiment. The hospital had been acting as a military hospital since 1940 and in 1942 it dealt specifically with the treatment of psychiatric casualties. In 1943 the military sent in psychoanalysts John Rickman and Wilfred Bion to run the training wing of the hospital whereby they began an experiment in rehabilitating soldiers. This experiment lasted only six weeks and in 1944 the second experiment began. Bridger’s main contribution to the experiment was creating the ‘hospital club’ where he allowed the patients to organise their own activities, groups, and leadership in order to engage the patients and the hospital as a whole. It was here that the therapeutic community element of the experiment emerged. In 1945 he joined the staff at the Civil Resettlement Units (for returned prisoners of war) as Chief Vocational Officer alongside Isabel Menzies Lyth, Tommy Wilson and Eric Trist.

After the war, Bridger trained as a psychoanalyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, qualifying in 1950. He trained under John Rickman, Paula Heimann, Melanie Klein and Anna Freud. Alongside this, he became one of the twelve founding members of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in 1947 where his career focused on group relations and consultancy. Bridger practiced psychoanalysis until 1960 and after this point he used psychodynamic principles in his role at the Tavistock to practice counselling for many individuals and families connected to action research projects. This counselling mainly focused around the topics of career development and education.

Between 1950 and 2000, while at the Tavistock Institute, Bridger led on a number of consultancy projects working with commercial organisations such as Unilever, Shell, Philips, and J. Lyons and Co to apply a number of his experimental theories to the workplace. These included the 'double-task' approach, his development of the working conference, and the idea of 'suspending business' to help managers think reflectively about their organisation. During this time Bridger helped to bring group dynamics to the forefront of business.

Much of Bridger's work was conducted with international organisations and individuals with connections in Europe, America and the Middle East. These connections ranged from therapeutic communities, applied behavioural science institutes, commercial businesses and academics.

In 1991 he helped Lisl Klein develop the Bayswater Institute and in the latter stages of his career, he continued to travel, giving lectures and teaching all over the world until the age of 91.

Harold Bridger died in Little Brook House, Warsash Hampshire on 3 May 2005.

Wellcome Collection also hold the following related archives: - Eric Trist (PP/TRI) - Tommy Wilson (PP/TWI) - Alex Pollock (PP/POL) - The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (SA/TIH).

Acquired by Wellcome in May 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 2000 and 2005 and donated by Harold Bridger (acc nos 2000.034, 2002.073, 2002.076, 2005.038). 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.

Prior to acquisition by the Mulberry Bush Third Space (MB3) between 2020-2022, approximately 300 boxes of material were subjected to a phased, high-level appraisal exercise. Much duplicate, non archival material and ephemeral material was appraised. During cataloguing at MB3, records belonging to individuals (Eric Trist, Tommy Wilson and Alex Pollock) were separated out from the Harold Bridger archive and given their own collection references, while some personal family records were offered back to the Bridger family.

None expected.

Copyright in material created by Harold Bridger has been transferred to Wellcome Collection at the point of acquisition via Mulberry Bush Third Space Archive service (MB3) in 2026. This copyright was previously owned by the Planned Environment Trust Archive and Study Centre who acquired the collection and subsequently transferred to MB3 in December 2018. 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.