Welcome to our first newsletter of 2021
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What an exciting year we have ahead of us, not only celebrating our illustrious history, but also mapping out our plans for the future. The world is still battling a global pandemic but did you know that COVID-19 isn't the first pandemic that Seafarers Hospital Society has worked through?
We've supported seafarers and fishers through numerous major disease outbreaks including typhus, smallpox and cholera. These were all serious threats to life, causing widespread panic, particularly among seafarers - in 1832 alone, over 55,000 people died. The Society’s doctors were pioneers in recording cases among seafarers and using the data to try to prevent further outbreaks.
We are 200 years old this month!
On Monday March 8th we celebrated our 200th birthday. The Seafarers Hospital Society has been looking after the health and welfare of seafarers since 1821 and is one of the oldest maritime charities in the UK. Throughout the past 200 years our basic purpose has remained unchanged, but the way we provide support has changed significantly. And never more so than in the past 12 months in response to Covid-19.
SHS Staff & Trustees celebrate 200 years on zoom!
Our Values
Not only has our purpose remained the same since 1821, but also the values that underpin our work. They are:
- Responsive - to the problems faced by seafarers and their families
- Pioneering - in our approach to treatment, medical practice and training
- Inclusive and non-discriminatory – in the treatment of seafarers and the provision of opportunities
In this issue
In this issue of the newsletter we will give you a brief overview of our history and delve a little deeper into one of those values – inclusivity and non-discrimination. We plan to focus on the others in future issues.
We will also update you on our work in the last quarter and give voice to some of our beneficiaries.
An overview of our history
From 1817 to 1870
The Seafarers Hospital Society was founded in 1821, as the Seamen’s Hospital Society, by a group of philanthropists in response to the increasing number of homeless and impoverished seafarers living on the streets of London after the Napoleonic wars. By then the Mercantile Marine, as it was known, was clearly demarcated from the Royal Navy but had none of the Navy’s medical services to support its men. The health of the sailors in the merchant service had been almost totally neglected.
It was in response to this neglect that, in 1817-18, a group of philanthropists established a charity for distressed seamen. Originally called the Society for Distressed (Destitute) Seamen, in 1821 it became the Seamen’s Hospital Society.
The Society’s founders included abolitionists William Wilberforce, MP for Hull, and Zachary Macaulay. They formed a committee to fit out and run a floating hospital ship anchored in the Pool of London off Greenwich.
For the next fifty years thousands of merchant seamen were cared for by the Society on a succession of three ships. The second ship was the Dreadnought – a name that was retained, became synonymous with our services, and lives on today.
From 1870 to 1986
In 1870 the Dreadnought came ashore and operated for over 100 years from the former Greenwich Hospital Infirmary as the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital. Here the Dreadnought gained world-wide recognition for its contribution to the understanding of tropical diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scurvy, which led to the founding of the famous Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
From 1870 onwards the Society not only supported the work of the Dreadnought but also developed a network of related services, from hospital and nursing care to residential care and support.
From 1986 to the present day
In 1986, with changes in the NHS and the decline of the merchant fleet, the Dreadnought Hospital was closed and its work transferred to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital where seafarers continue to receive priority medical treatment from the Dreadnought Medical Service.
Today the Society plays an important role in meeting the health and welfare needs of seafarers. It provides health and welfare grants to seafarers and their dependants; provides grants to the maritime organisations that care for them; and supports a number of other services provided exclusively for seafarers, including SAIL and the Dreadnought. It has recently amended its name from Seamen’s Hospital Society to Seafarers Hospital Society.
To find out more about our history and read about the people involved, watch our video and explore this exciting historic timeline.
Our Values
Inclusivity and non-discrimination
March 8th was not only our 200th birthday, it was also International Women’s Day and the theme this year is “Choose to Challenge“.
The Society has been challenging discrimination for 200 years. We treat all UK based seafarers regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender
- Since the foundation of the Society in 1821 we have remained committed to the treatment of all seafarers, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Originally this applied to seamen in the Port of London, but since 1958 it has included all seafarers based anywhere in the UK and Northern Ireland, and their dependants.
- Although questions were raised initially over what was criticised as the prioritising of ‘foreigners’ over British seamen, the Society stuck to its guns and has continued to do so for 200 years.
- In 1851 when Dickens visited the Dreadnought hospital ship, he was struck by the number of foreign patients he found there, but celebrated the geographical mix of the seamen being treated.
We have a history of offering women a wide range of opportunities to support the work of the Society as patrons, employees, charity workers and benefactors.
Patrons
- The Seamen’s Hospital Society has had four royal women Patrons. In 1837 Queen Victoria became the Society’s third Patron and, following her death in 1901, Queen Alexandra, with her husband King Edward VII, became the fourth.
- In 1910 Queen Mary, with her husband George V, became the Society’s fifth Patron, and after his death she continued in the role until 1953 - firstly on her own and then with her son George VI. She attended many Society fundraising events and opened the New Albert Dock Hospital in 1938.
- The current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was Patron from 1953 until 2000.
Queen Alexandra
Employment
- In the 19th and 20th centuries the Society offered a range of employment opportunities for women. It was a pioneer in nurse training and ran general nursing courses at its Dreadnought Nurse Training School.
- These were overseen by well-respected matrons such as Alice Hall MBE who worked at the Dreadnought for 40 years between 1885 and 1925, and Betty Noble who was in charge of 3 intakes of Dreadnought nurse probationers per year in the 1950s and ‘60s.
- The Society also ran courses in tropical nursing at the Albert Dock Hospital which gave an alternative training for women who might wish to work abroad.
Alice Hall 1920s
Fundraising
- In the early 20th century women played an important role in fundraising for the Society. Queen Alexandra supported many Society fundraising events. In 1919 she opened the ‘Silver Thimble Ward’ at the Dreadnought Hospital following a successful fundraising campaign run by the Silver Thimble Fund which had been set up by Elizabeth Hope-Clarke in 1915 to contribute to the war effort.
Dreadnought nurses were also involved with fundraising throughout the 1920s and 1930s. One of the most well-known events took place every year when the Secretary, Matron and local dignitaries joined the nurses for the Dreadnought Christmas pudding stir-up. All the ingredients for a giant Christmas pudding were donated by the Australian High Commission, and the finished pudding was served to the patients on Christmas Day.
Nurses' quarters Tilbury Hospital 1920
Dreadnought Christmas pudding stir-up 1929
In the first half of the 20th century there were also several important women’s fundraising organisations working to raise money for the SHS. These included the Ladies Dreadnought Remembrance League, which was chaired by the wife of the distinguished LSTM physician Sir Philip Manson-Bahr; the Ladies Needlework Guilds at the KGSS and Tilbury Hospitals; and the Ladies Linen Guild which raised money to supply linen to all the SHS hospitals.
In the 1930s the SHS was well known for its annual Regatta which was held on the river Thames in Greenwich over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Hundreds of spectators came to watch the races, including the Ladies International Four Oared Rowing Race. Dreadnought nurses were involved and helped construct a large-scale model of the Dreadnought hospital ship which was floated on the river in front of the Royal Naval College.
KGSS open-air wards 1920s
SHS regatta 1920s
Benefactors
- Women also supported the Society financially through bequests. The Society’s archives are full of records of women benefactors who left substantial legacies to the Society in gratitude for the work of the Merchant Navy.
- Their greatest female benefactor was Mrs L. Angas who gifted the Society her large, empty home in Cudham, Kent to commemorate the courage and heroism of the Merchant Marine in the Great War. It was opened as The Angas Convalescent Home for sailors in 1918.
Angas Home 1920s
Women and the Society today
Today the Society continues to promote and support women in all areas of its work. We are led by a female CEO and employ women both directly and indirectly, whether as part of our administrative team or in the provision of support services to our beneficiaries, such as physiotherapists, counsellors and healthy lifestyle advisors. This last year alone we have awarded £49k in grants to 76 women, that’s an average of £680 each.
Our response to need in 2020
In 2020 the Society continued during the global pandemic to provide grants despite unprecedented challenges. The team worked hard to support seafarers during these difficult times and, as far as possible, it was business as usual.
455 grants to seafarers
Total
£266,245
200 Covid-related grants totalling £97,613
Physiotherapy grants: Total £19,210
SAIL helped 1748 clients
SAIL achieved £2,273.012 measurable financial success
1675 engaged people with healthy lifestyle advisors
Conducted 493 health checks
Delivered 334 dental treatments
Delivered 239 face-to-face counselling sessions
Held 46 health check events
Providing 328 health checks
Dreadnought Medical Service
The priority service remains on hold but they are taking referrals which are being wait listed.
To find out more about what is and isn’t available from the Society at any time, get in touch by calling the office on 020 8858 3696 or email admin@seahospital.org.uk
The people we've helped
“I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to SHS for helping me through the most difficult time in my life. The financial help you have arranged for me to settle my husband’s funeral costs has been a great weight off my shoulders. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me.”
“My husband has not been able to go back to sea. We received payments for the Gas and Electric and are extremely grateful, thank you!”
