Pallister Church of England Girls' Home

Pallister Church of England Girls’ Home was a girls’ home run by the Church of England Deaconess Institution. It was formerly the Deaconess Children’s Home (or Agincourt) in Strathfield. In 1946, Pallister Church of England Girls Home moved to Greenwich. The new premises were a house called Standish, in the grounds of Greenwich Hospital, and from that point the home was known as Pallister House or Lisgar Trust. Pallister House took girls who had been referred from the Children’s Court. Pallister House was closed and Pallister Young People’s Unit and Special School opened in the same building in 1977.

The Deaconesses renamed Lisgar as Pallister Girls Home in 1935. This was a home for girls who were described as ‘difficult’, most of who were referred by the Children’s Courts. It operated from 1936 to 1946 at Strathfield and then in Standish/Pallister House, in the grounds of Greenwich Hospital, until 1976. From 1977 to 1982 the Deaconesses converted the Pallister House building to Pallister Young People’s Unit and Special School.

Win Evans recalls that Agincourt was renamed Pallister after a former Deaconess in charge of Deaconess Children’s Homes. In 2011 the Agincourt site was used by the Jesmond Nursing Home.

Pallister Girls’ Home closed its Strathfield home in 1945 and moved to Standish House in the grounds of Greenwich Hospital, where it became Pallister House, also known as Lisgar Trust.

According to historian Peter Quinn, Pallister House was one of the few non-government organisations to be funded by the Child Welfare Department to provide juvenile justice services.

In the 1980s the Church of England Deaconess Institution changed its name to Anglican Deaconess Ministries Ltd. This organisation holds annual reports of Pallister, and some group photographs of children who lived in the homes.