To celebrate a group of Medical Mission Sisters and friends went to visit Winchcombe in the Cotswolds and to see the first house occupied by the sisters in England . This house was owned by Miss Pauline Willis who was, in the words of Founder Anna Dengel, “our first friend and benefactor”.
Miss Willis was the secretary of the London Committee, set up by Dr Agnes McClaren to obtain funds for a Catholic Hospital in India in which Muslim women could receive medical help from women medical staff. Their culture would not allow them to be seen by a male doctor. Dr McCLaren was in fact the inspiration behind Anna Dengel founding MMS. Miss Pauline Willis offered her house in Winchcombe as a temporary first centre in England and this offer was taken up in 1931. Sr Dorothy Finnigan was called back from Rawalpindi , the first hospital of MMS in what is now Pakistan , to take charge. A succession of young women, mostly from Germany came to see if this life was for them but only one stayed from those early days, Sr Monica Neuhaus from Germany . In 1932 the community moved to a more permanent home in Osterley, Middlesex.
Today
The visitors with the parish priest
The visiting group with the parish priest