After the setting up of the
Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS) the Albany Trust was founded in May 1958 as a registered charity to take on the psychological and social aspects of homosexuality.
The founding Trustees were
A. E. Dyson, Jacquetta Hawkes, Kenneth Walker, Andrew Hallidie Smith, and Ambrose Appelbe. The name of the Trust was taken from the residential chambers in Albany, Piccadilly where Jacquetta Hawkes and her husband J. B. Priestly had an apartment and where some of the early committee meetings of the HLRS and the Trust were held.
The Trust became the pioneer national counselling agency for both gay men and lesbians. Other sexual minorities such as transsexuals and transvestites have also been helped. There were 14 issues of the Trust’s journal
Man and Society from 1961 to 1973. It was started by Venetia and John Newall who had become joint secretaries of the Trust in 1960.
Antony Grey then took over as editor of the journal. Contributors included J. B. Priestley, C. H. Rolph (Bill Hewitt), Bertrand Russell, Frank Pakenham (also called Viscount Packenham, and later known as Lord Longford), John Robinson (Bishop of Woolwich), Angus Wilson, Chad Varah, Iris Murdoch, Norman Pittenger, and Charlotte Wolff.
The funds raised and donated for the work of the Albany Trust allowed it to finance office space and staff. These same facilities were then available for the campaigning work of the
Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS). The organisation and history of the Albany Trust and the HLRS are therefore inextricably linked. More details are given in the section on the
HLRS.
EditBibliography
Antony Grey, (1992), “Quest for Justice”