Catalogue description Records of the Mersey Mission to Seamen

1. Minutes Books 9 vols., 1866 - 1967

2. Miscellaneous papers 1 vol., 40 docs., 1848 - 1850, 1877 - 1953, n.d.

3. Photographs 123 items, 1895 - c.1967, n.d.

Mersey Mission to Seamen, Liverpool

The records listed below were deposited in this library in September 1978 and August 1979 by Mr. D.A. Sadler, Administrative Secretary, Mersey Mission to Seamen, Kingston House, James Street, Liverpool L2 7PG.

ACC.3180

• Liverpool

The Mersey Branch of the Missions to Seamen was founded in 1856.

Instrumental in its foundation was William Henry James Kingston (1814-1880) novelist, author and editor of adventure stories for boys and of works on emigration, such as a manual for colonists How to Emigrate, 1850.

According to D.N.B. Vol. 11, 1909, he was "...a zealous volunteer and worked actively for the improvement of the condition of seamen". He had assisted the Rev. T.C. Childs, until 1855 Vicar of St. Mary's, Devonport, as a voluntary helper in the latter's work among seamen and emigrants on the ships off Plymouth. Childs later suggested to Kingston that "... he should organize a National Society capable of coping with the ministrations for seamen everywhere" (see M.R. King'sford The Mersey Mission to Seamen 1856-1956, 1957 p.17). In February 1856 Kingston called a meeting in London of those interested in this work, a provisional committee was set up and the Missions to Seamen was established.

Later in the same year, Kingston travelled to Liverpool for a weekend in November to attend a meeting of "those most likely to be interested in seamen in Liverpool" (see Kinsford op. cit. p.20). A Liverpool provisional committee was formed, followed closely by a further meeting at which the Mersey Branch of the Missions to Seamen was established.

Liverpool citizens influential in its formation included Alexander Balfour (1824-1886), shipowner, Christopher Bushell (1810-1887) Town Councillor and chairman of the Liverpool School Board, 1870-1887, and Thomas Berry Horsfall, former Mayor and M.P. from 1857.

In its early years the work of the Mersey branch of the Missions to Seamen was confined to activities among the ships anchored in the Mersey and the seamen on them. Later it acquired premises ashore and on 10th December 1885 the Mission opened the Seamen's Institute in Hanover Street.

By 1923 the Mission, now described as "the Mersey Mission to Seamen, an independent Branch of the World-Wide Missions to Seamen Society" (see The Mersey Mission to Seamen: Its Work and Needs in Elder Dempster Magazine, vol.2, 1928, pp.178-181) had expended to include eight Institutes, two in Liverpool, two in Birkenhead (one for Asian Seamen), with others in Bootle, Garston, Runcorn and Ellesmere Port. There was also a Seafaring Boys' Home and a Mission launch for work among the shipping visiting the port and the local lightships. Staff included five chaplains, nine lay missioners, the Central Hastel Manager, institute keepers and the launch crew.

In November 1956 the Central Institute in Hanover Street was closed and the building taken over by the Diocese of Liverpool as Church House. Kingston House, James Street, the new Headquarters of the Mersey Mission to Seamen was built in the period 1956 to 1958 and was officially opened in March 1958.

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