Joan Bartlett

Who was Joan Bartlett?

Dame Joan Bartlett, S.S.I., O.B.E., D.S.G., was a prominent British convert to the Roman Catholic Church and the foundress of the Servite Secular Institute.

During World War II Bartlett worked in the European Broadcasting division of the BBC, and at night was a Commandant of the Red Cross. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1941, becoming a Servite tertiary. She opened a residential home for the elderly homeless, having been inspired by hearing Violet Markham speak at Caxton Hall about the plight of many elderly people who had been bombed out during The Blitz. Having already been accepted as a candidate to the Servite Religious Sisters, she was persuaded to delay her entry for this work by her spiritual director, a Servite friar.

The Servite Order lent Bartlett £8000 and the Air Raid Distress Fund of London another £3600 to help this project. With this money and other contributions from individual donors, most notably, Albert Oppenheimer she purchased a property in The Boltons. It was registered as the Hearth and Home Housing Association, soon known as Servite Housing, and began to operate in 1946. They have since severed their connections with the institute she founded.