Missions to Seamen

From the North Wales Chronicle, 6th September 1918.

MISSIONS TO SEAMEN. WORK IN THE NORTH WALES STATION. 

The annual report for the North Wales Station of the Missions to Seamen, just issued, states that the past year has been full of interest, and not the most confirmed "grouser" could complain of monotony or lack of opportunity.  Both at Bangor and Holyhead the work presented many new problems.

At Bangor the work on the T.S. [Training Ship] "Clio" had gone on under the happiest conditions, and the chaplain (Rev. C. W. Barlow) states that the ship has provided him with many a happy hour and oft-times proved a veritable tonic.  To meet an unusual demand, a Sailors' Club has been established in Bangor, under the auspices of the Missions.  The club is housed in a building admirably adapted for the purpose and lent rent free by the Dean and his committee, while for the usual accessories they thanked willing and generous friends.  All the men on the mine-sweepers were supplied with woollen comforts by the Bangor Women's Patriotic Guild.

Holyhead had provided much scope for, as the naval base grew, so the work of the chaplain (now appointed by the Admiralty as hon. naval chaplain) increased in like ratio.  It had been made possible by friends of the Missions to meet several of the more pressing material needs of the sailors, and, during the Christmas period, some seven to eight hundred warm articles were distributed to them, as well as some sixty plum-puddings.  In addition, a circulating library of five hundred to six hundred books had been established, and a number of gramophones loaned out to the ships in turn. The Stanley Sailors' Home at Holyhead had proved a great boon to many a sailor whose ship had been torpedoed.  It was not allowable to state the number of men cared for there; but, when the time came that such information could be made public, it would be seen that the Home had played no mean part in helping those who were in distress through the perils of sea and of war.  The Stanley Sailors' Hospital had also provided many opportunities for ministering to the needs of the sailors.