Seafarers Hospital Society

Organisational records of the Seafarers Hospital Society (SHS), formerly the Seamen's Hospital Society. The records cover the foundation, governance, development and activities of the SHS from 1821 to the 2000s and include: trustee and committee minutes and meeting papers; annual reports and accounts; SHS newsletters and magazines; press cuttings; publicity and fundraising materials; legal and property records; scrapbooks, albums and photographs of SHS premises, facilities, patients and staff; and publications thematically related to the work of the SHS. The archive also includes some visual and cultural material such as prints and drawings of SHS premises and facilities.

1820s-2000s

1 box O/S 30 boxes; oversized material

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. The Seafarers Hospital Society is one of the oldest maritime charities and is best known for Dreadnought, a hospital ship set up in 1821 to provide medical services for seafarers. In 1870 it ‘came ashore’ and operated from the former Greenwich Hospital Infirmary where it gained a worldwide reputation for its contribution to understanding diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scurvy. This led to the founding of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Throughout the past 200 years the Society’s basic purpose has remained unchanged, however the provision of support has changed significantly and never more so than in 2020. The Society responded to the Covid-19 pandemic bydrawing down funds from its investment portfolio and increasing the number and level of grants to support seafarers and their dependants during this time. Maintaining the provision of mental health and wellbeing support for seafarers and their families is a key priority for the organisation.

Information accurate as of Jan 2023 and amended from Seafarers Hospital Society website: https://seahospital.org.uk.

Transferred to Wellcome.

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