This is one of 24 films donated to the YFA by the Sailors’ Families’ Society, a collection dating from 1936 until a visit by Diana the Princess Of Wales in February 1991. Other Royal visits include Princess Mary in 1949, the Queen in 1957 and Princess Anne in 1971. Some of these films are promotional, or simply documenting the Society’s activities, while others are explicitly appealing for funds. Among the fund appeal films are: Gladys Young Appeal Film (1951), Silent Appeal (1952), Brian Rix...

This is one of 24 films donated to the YFA by the Sailors’ Families’ Society, a collection dating from 1936 until a visit by Diana the Princess Of Wales in February 1991. Other Royal visits include Princess Mary in 1949, the Queen in 1957 and Princess Anne in 1971. Some of these films are promotional, or simply documenting the Society’s activities, while others are explicitly appealing for funds. Among the fund appeal films are: Gladys Young Appeal Film (1951), Silent Appeal (1952), Brian Rix TV Appeal (1964) and Safe On Shore (1980). At the time most of these films were made the Society was known as the Sailors’ Children’s Society – a name it adopted in 1950. Before that, from 1917, it was the Port of Hull Society’s Sailor’s Orphan Homes. But it changed its name again in 1991 to the Sailors’ Families’ Society to reflect the wider scope of its work. Unfortunately, information is difficult to find for the company that made A Family Affair, Star Film Productions in Hull.

Another related film held by YFA is Hull Seamen’s & General Orphanage, made in 1951 by an amateur filmmaker based in Wakefield, which chronicles an open day at Hull Seamen's and General Orphanage Society. This was another institution established, at Spring Bank in 1865, to cater for children whose fathers had been lost at sea.

The Sailors' Families' Society is a maritime charity caring for the children of deceased and disabled seafarers, and those in severe financial hardship, from the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and general fishing backgrounds. The Society has its origins way back in 1821 after a public advertisement was placed in the Boys’ Schoolroom, Salt House Lane, to organise a Society, originally called ‘The Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction to Seamen’. It began life as a seaman's bethel – a place of worship for seamen – before becoming the largest orphanage in Hull, where at its peak over 300 children were looked after and educated on the Newland Estate. Like many charities set up in the nineteenth century, it had a Christian missionary aim as much, if not more, than a welfare one.

In 1837 the Sailors Orphan Institute was established in Waterhouse Lane for clothing and educating children of deceased seamen and river men. The first orphanage was set up in 1862 in Castle Row, and, thanks in part to the patronage of Titus Salt, the then forerunners of The Sailors’ Children’s Society opened an orphanage at Thanet House in Park Street, Hull, in 1869, a year after receiving royal patronage.  Later on, in 1892, six acres of land were purchased in Cottingham Road and a further six acres was bought in 1896. These became Newland Homes, a collection of 10 homes, and staff and children were transferred here in 1898. On this site a model village was developed, and five years later a primary school, St Nicholas, was set up for the children.  Later still the Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel. By 1930 the homes could accommodate 250 children.

For as long as there have been records, fishing and seafaring jobs have had a greater number of casualties than any other job: in 1885 the Royal Commission reported that around 10,000 seamen (1 in 63) died while working on the seas every year.   But this is not just something from the distant past: as recently as 2002 a study by Dr Stephen Roberts at Oxford University found that between 1976 and 1995 103 in every 100,000 fishermen died while working, 50 times higher than other workers – see also the Context for Pot Luck.

Having a well-known actor narrate a fundraising film was not new for the Society. In 1951 Gladys Young was used – a well-known actress of the time who appeared in several films, including The Lady With A Lamp in 1951, the same year as her appeal, and many TV programmes and radio broadcasts for the BBC. In 1964 Brian Rix was used. The choice of Brian Rix to make an appeal might have been connected with the fact that he comes from Cottingham, on the outskirts of Hull, and also that his father was a Hull shipowner. John Mills of course was possibly the most well known British actor of the time, and his dignified persona made him an obvious choice for this film. His career of over 100 films began in the 1930s; but it was the films he made in the 1940s and 1950s, like Ice Cold in Alex (1958), that made him such a well-liked actor. In the year that this film was made, 1960, he starred in Tunes of Glory with Alec Guinness; apparently, his favourite film even though his character, Lieut. Col. Basil Barrow, in the end, commits suicide – a role for which he won the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival. Three years before his death in 2005 he received a Bafta fellowship, the highest accolade bestowed by the Academy.

Like other films of this kind from post-war Britain, A Family Affair displays attitudes that might seem old fashioned now, especially in the emphasis given to producing good husbands and wives. There is also the way that being a sailor is portrayed as somehow a destiny: “Father at sea following his calling” and, “These boys have salt in their blood”. Certainly jobs related to the sea, whether as a sailor or in the docks, tended to get passed down the generations. But this may just as well be a reflection of the realities of what jobs were available in places like Hull, and the natural pressure of the local community.   It is no surprise that Hull had a college for training mercantile seamen, as seen in the film. 

A School for Fishermen was started in 1895 by Reuben Manton FRGS, Headmaster in St Andrews Hall, on the west side of the Boulevard. This moved in 1914 when Hull Education Committee established the Nautical College and High School for Nautical Training, also on the Boulevard just off Hessle Road; although it wasn’t until 1920 that the School admitted boys from 12 to 14 ages to train officers for the Merchant Navy. By the mid 1920s it was renamed the Boulevard Nautical School to include boys interested in joining the merchant navy, and later became known as Hull Nautical College.  It replaced the earlier Hull Municipal Technical School for Fishermen at No.1 Harrow Street and its remit was to give young men a rounded education as well as the skills required for a life at sea.   Hull Nautical College moved to new premises on George Street in 1973 – when the school merged with another to form Trinity House School – and closed in 1986.  The building is now Hull Youth Service's Boulevard Resource Centre. The YFA has a film made about the Nautical College from about the same time, A Matter of Course. 

Another aspect of the school that might be controversial today is the teaching of boxing to boys. Boxing is not taught in schools at present (2009), although some, like former world champion boxer Joe Calzaghe, believe that it should be.  It died out in schools in the early 1960s after an, unsuccessful, attempt by the Labour MP Dr Edith Summerskillto get it banned – even though several other sports were found to be more dangerous. In fact at the time of writing (November 2009), it is beginning to make something of a comeback, albeit as a non-contact sport!  Even this is still opposed by the British Medical Council who want boxing entirely banned for boys – at present they can still attend boxing gyms. That it was held in high esteem by theSailors’ Children’s Society is unsurprising as it has been regarded as a character building sport ever since Jack Broughton invented the first boxing gloves and formulated the first set of rules, the London Prize Ring Rules, in 1734 – followed by their extension in 1838 and the Queensberry Rules in 1867.  Certainly in 1960 this would have been no more controversial than the explicit Christianity, which is equally unsurprising given the Christian origins of so many charities – see the Context for Dale Days With the CPSA. The boxing match seen on TV may well be from the Rome Olympic Games – boxing was screened live on TV for the first time in 1960 – where Muhammad Ali (at the time still named Cassius Clay) first made his name.

An Old Scholars Association was set up in 1936 to ensure that old residents of the Children’s Home who have migrated across the globe can keep in touch. Hull City Archives holds admission registers and other records for The Sailors’ Children’s Society, including baptism registers of the Fishermen’s Bethel. It also holds lists of all those who died at sea.

The Society is still going strong, but now has a different focus. Today there is not the same need to provide residential care for children, this was phased out in the late 1980s. In the main children were fostered out instead.  Although Newland Homes still provided some residential care for local authority children who had been abused, this ended in 2005. In the previous year, as a result of a shortage of referrals, a decision was made to sell the Newland Estate, and this was completed in March 2009. The emphasis now is on assisting the children in their own homes. At the time of writing (September 2009) the Sailors’ Families’ Society assists 228 families with 417 children. More information on its history and current work can be found through the online link below.

(with thanks to Paul Glazzard for information on Boulevard Nautical School)

References 

The Sailors' Families' Society  

John Mills Obituary

Paul Glazzard, Boulevard Nautical School

The Report by Dr Stephen Roberts