World War Two heroine – our very own Helen Taylor Thompson

To mark VE Day, the Hackney Gazette recently featured the Second World War experiences of Helen Taylor Thompson, who, as Chair of the Trustee Board, saved the hospital from closure and helped secure its future as a leading HIV/AIDS hospice and later as a specialist hospital for the treatment, assessment and rehabilitation for people with HIV and HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders.

“Before saving Shoreditch’s Mildmay Hospital and setting it up as the world’s first AIDS hospice in the 1980s Helen Taylor Thompson helped save countless lives by sending coded messages to secret agents during the second world war…”

Photo credit: Hackney Archives