Testimonials

"In all honesty, this place has saved my life."

"You don't trust anyone on the streets but I am starting to trust people again. I feel safe here and am finally getting my life back together."

For ex-Service personnel and others alike, the causes of homelessness are complex.  Finding a home, job, repairing broken relationships and rebuilding a life is not easy. At Stoll, we understand the unique needs of people from the Services, regularly succeeding in integrating some of the most vulnerable former personnel back into the community.

 

John

John's house was repossessed in 1999, leaving him homeless, jobless and almost without hope. He suffered diabetes, depression and had flashbacks to his Falklands experiences. 

John will never forget the day in 1982 when the Galahad and Sir Tristram were hit and the mayhem that followed: "Every time I opened a door onto the helicopter's cargo area I was faced with badly burnt soldiers. It looked like their faces were melting. Each time I opened another door I prayed I wouldn't be faced with anything worse than the last time. Those experiences haunted me for many years." 

After returning home, John’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affected every aspect of his life. He struggled with and lost his job, turned to drink and fell into serious financial trouble.  

Following a tough spell living and working in a pub, John sought help: “That first night at the homeless hostel, I thought that was it, that my life was over. Thank goodness I met Julie, an Ex-Services Resettlement Officer from The Royal British Legion. She realised I was in a dreadful state and helped me apply for a flat at The Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation." John got his flat and with help from a grant from The Royal British Legion furnished it with essential items. "Getting a place of my own really turned my life around."  

 

Bob

Bob has been a resident at the Foundation since 2004, where he co-founded The Beef Kitchen, and Pryors Bank Café. 

 “In April 2004 I heard the words we all dread to hear: 'Mr Barrett you have cancer.' I came home to my new flat in a daze. What do you do? How do you cope? Two weeks later, I was rushed to hospital with heart problems and it was going to be nearly four weeks before I saw my new home again.

“I recovered thanks to the extra support from the Foundation, provided by their excellent Tenant Support team. The staff never let a day go by without asking how I was or if I needed anything, providing home visits, doing my shopping or just dropping by for a chat. It made so much difference. 

 “I believe if you create an opportunity for others it has far more chance of success than if you do it for yourself. SOSF does that every single day so I put the old thinking cap on and came up with the Beef Kitchen idea. I talked fellow residents Tim Wilson and Emmett Burke into joining me and approached CEO Rick Brunwin with my idea. In August 2005 we opened for business, capitalising on the Foundation's close proximity to Chelsea Football Club by selling good quality food to Chelsea fans on match days. 

“Since then and the Beef Kitchen has grown from strength to strength and succeeded in a tender to open an apprenticeship café for former homeless ex-Servicemen in Bishop's Park, Fulham. 

“I thank the Foundation's supporters today for my home and my life and hope that many more homeless ex-Service personnel can be helped."

 

Alex

Alex grew up in several foster homes in different parts of Scotland. He always wanted to join the navy and escape his situation. At 17, Alex left the care home he was in and headed to Plymouth, serving on HMS Raleigh. After five years service, Alex worked as a landscape gardener before heading to London to find work.

“I had been doing several live-in jobs as a barman and a handyman when my original family tried to make contact with me. My mother and father had died but I was able to develop a relationship with my two brothers who were fishermen in Peterhead. They asked me to join them and suddenly I was back at sea. I remained a fisherman for eight years until the industry collapsed and we were without a job.

“I decided to head back down to London but I was unable to get any work and my money soon ran out. Before long I was sleeping rough on the streets and selling the Big Issue just to survive. It was whilst living on the streets that I began to develop some mental health issues. I became very insular and wary of people. I managed to get myself to New Belvedere House, an ex-service hostel that works very closely with the Stoll Foundation, where I was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis.

“Being given a home has made an enormous difference. For the first time in a long while I feel secure. I have joined the Foundation’s allotment scheme. It has been wonderfully therapeutic and has aided me with my illness by getting me out and about. The community here is fantastic and I am starting to meet more and more people who want to help me. Ultimately I hope to return to work.”

 

Peter

A Barnados boy, Peter grew up in several homes in the Somerset area. He joined the Army in 1968 aged 16, going on to serve 24 years. He joined the Ordnance Corps and did several tours of duty in the Middle East, Far East, Ireland, Germany and Hong Kong, and saw active service in the Gulf War in 1991. 

Married with three children, he loved the Army’s camaraderie and felt it gave his family a wonderful opportunity to travel and see the world.

On leaving the army in 1992, Peter found it very difficult to acclimatise to civilian life, as did his family: “'Suddenly the whole structure that I had known since I was sixteen was no longer there.'” Within 18 months his marriage broke down.

Peter continued working for the Army, assessing the victims of PTSD and other trauma related incidents. '”I enjoyed the job and people trusted me. Most people in the army will not talk to psychologists or civilian doctors. They find it very difficult to open up.

Then tragedy struck when three weeks before his 21st birthday, his son was killed in a car accident. “The problem was that I never actually grieved. I failed to accept the bereavement.” After two years this culminated in a nervous breakdown. “I felt very alone. Before I knew it I was sleeping in my car and just drifting around. I finally realised that there was better than this but before you can find yourself you must have a base and the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation gives you that.

“Everyone in the office is great and really willing to help you. You know if you have any problems, from paying bills to health issues they are on hand to help you at the same time they give you back your independence and let you get on with your life. There is a real community here in a lovely part of London."

 

Nigel

An ex-Royal Navy man, Nigel Naesmith moved in to the Stoll Mansions in 2010 after an extraordinary period of thirty years on the road, mostly spent homeless in Italy.

Nigel joined the Navy aged just 15 and experienced six challenging years of service; first on the HMS Ganges in Ipswich, then on the HMS Mercury in Petersfield and finally at the HMS Dolphin base in Gosport from where Nigel crewed on the tracking submarines HMS Opportune and HMS Onslaught.

When Nigel came out of service aged 22 he found life as tough as it had been in service and suffered a nervous breakdown. The resulting depression saw him become homeless and wander the English countryside, losing all trace of himself, before he literally lost track of his whereabouts and ended up in Paris.

In France he was told by fellow travelers, some of whom were also ex-service, to travel South so as not to perish in the winter. It wasn't long before Nigel found himself in Italy, a country that he came to know inside out. While learning to live by his wits and by begging, an activity he was completely unaccustomed to, Nigel also learnt the language and culture of the country, thanks in part to cheap second-hand books he was able to buy and swap.

It was a shared love of culture that bonded him with a classics teacher in Rome called Giovanna. Giovanna and her family showed great kindness to Nigel and helped him through illness including bronchitis. However, Nigel was also battling Parkinson's disease by this stage and it was this that persuaded all concerned that it would be better for Nigel to return to the UK to receive continuous medical care.

Using Giovanna's computer Nigel made email contact with Veterans Aid. They responded quickly and started to clear his path back to the UK, one that involved piecing together lost documentation. When Nigel returned in 2009 he stayed at the New Belvedere House hostel and was able to get regular access to health care, vital to improving his condition.

As Nigel says “it is important to have a quality of life at a time when it is most needed” and the pursuit of this aim was again furthered when Veterans Aid helped Nigel apply to Stoll Mansions.

Nigel says that felt he was “in full sunlight” when he arrived at Stoll Mansions last August [2010] and he has enjoyed living independently here while knowing that help, including his continuing medical care, is just around the corner.

Meanwhile, matters of the mind as well as the body have always been of great importance to Nigel and so he is delighted that James, Stoll's employment and training officer, is helping him to find a degree course to follow a few evenings a week.

Nigel maintains a busy life, with many cultural outings, and while he remembers some elements of his past fondly, he observes: “I have never been in favour of repeating things and I feel like I am moving forward all of the time.”

 

Chris

Chris spent nine years with The Royal Anglian regiment, seeing service in Northern Ireland, Berlin, Cyprus, the US and elsewhere.

After leaving the Army in 1987 Chris held down a steady job as a courier for 14 years. However, Chris' stable civilian life was shattered when his mother fell ill with Alzheimer's and the family were forced to sell her house to cover her care costs. 

Having left his London lodgings and job to care for his mother, Chris was now rendered homeless [as the local authority argued he had voluntarily made himself so] and decided to return to London.

Two years on the street followed. Chris was lucky in that he teamed up with three other ex-Servicemen; their training and resourcefulness helped them to cope with the experience better than most.

Support from kind individuals and outreach workers also helped, of course, and eventually a suggestion was made to Chris that he contact Veterans Aid.

Three years at VA's New Belvedere House hostel in Stepney followed, during which time Chris' mother died, a blow that hit Chris really hard, inevitably slowing his journey to a more independent lifestyle.

However, Chris' life turned a corner when he was introduced, through the VA, to Banstead Court, the Foundation's East Acton housing development. "I remember thinking 'I could live here'. I felt a lot more secure and it was nice to have peace of mind again, not to mention the help from support services who let me settle in slowly but surely and assisted me with all sorts of things including filling in benefits forms."

The next milestone on Chris' journey to independent living came when Stoll's employment and training officer, who had been going through Chris' CV and consulting with him about possible jobs, told him about a post at The Poppy Factory in Richmond. Chris eagerly took up the post in February 2011 and is now one of a small but dedicated staff, including other ex servicemen, who make wreaths for Remembrance Sunday. "It's one of the best things I have ever done," says Chris, "and it's all down to Sir Oswald Stoll."

Having a steady job again was key to Chris being put forward for the Veteran's Nomination Scheme and towards the prospect of a new house and a completely independent living space. 

From being nominated to moving in took just three weeks. In this time Stoll's support services oversaw a thorough redecoration of the new house in Hounslow, provided by Thames Valley Housing.

"I can't praise them highly enough. I didn't recognise the place from when I first saw it. It feels like home."