Celebrating 100 years - Father Nigel Scott

Father Nigel Scott joined St Pancras House Improvement Society in 1929 and he was Father Basil Jellicoe’s Assistant until Father Jellicoe resigned in 1934 due to ill health when Father Scott took responsibility for the society. 

He played a key role with Father Basil Jellicoe in establishing the St Pancras House Improvement Society. Scott worked with Gerald E. Belmont and Leonard A. Day to create fundraising films. The films were looked at in a television programme by Sue Crockford on the history of St Pancras Housing Association, shown on Channel 4 in 1984. Often more than 130 public talks would be given a year by the ‘Flying Squad’, which was made up of Father Jellicoe, Father Percy Maryon-Wilson and Father Scott. Giving these talks helped them to set up a network of 37 local secretaries through the country including two in Scotland. 

In 1932, Father Basil Jellicoe was unwell and Father Scott became the society’s Organiser with Leonard Atkinson as Acting Chairman. Scott was very good at fundraising and relied on the network they had built up to bring in high amounts of funds. In 1933 an appeal was launched to buy the Eversholt Estate and in four weeks, they raised £22,000 – which would have been nearly £2 million today. In fact, Scott took charge of fundraising and publicity when Father Jellicoe left, meaning that he addressed meetings, wrote publications such as Housing Happenings founded by Father Jellicoe, and also organised a bazaar in aid of The Children’s House.  

He was also chair of the Nursery School Committee, of which Evelyn Perry, Nora Hill, Mrs Spence and Miss Kelly were also committee members. Scott set up an afternoon Grandfathers’ Club who met at Basil Jellicoe Hall, which was used for many clubs as the hub of social life in Somers Town. 

Father Jellicoe wrote of Father Nigel Scott ‘It is really quite wonderful how, when a situation in Somers Town becomes almost desperate exactly the right person turns up…’