1837: The shipping trade in the port of Liverpool was expanding rapidly and the friends of seamen there recognised the disadvantage they were under through the lack of comfortable lodgings while they were in port. At the same time a number of prominent men in Liverpool were discussing the idea of a public sailors' home and a committee was set up to look into the idea.

1841: For three years the committee made little progress, but at a meeting on 25 February 1841 it was decided that "a Sailors' Home shall be established, and have for its object the providing for seamen in the port of Liverpool a comfortable and well-regulated home, where they may be lodged and boarded at a reasonable charge, medical advice furnished; their character registered; encouragement given to deposit their wages at interest; and opportunity afforded them for avoiding the vice and extortion of which they are now the victims, and where efforts may be made to improve their moral condition by providing for their religious instruction, and by urging upon them the careful performance of their duties to God and man".

The next three years were spent looking for a suitable building, or a site on which to erect a new one.

1844: Thomas Sands, the then Mayor of Liverpool, called a public meeting on 18 October to make arrangements for the establishment of a "Sailors' Home, Registry and Savings Bank for Seamen". It was attended by shipowners and others interested in seamen. All were enthusiastic. Funds were asked for and shortly after the meeting £13,660 had been received towards the cost of the new Home.

Negotiations with the Liverpool Corporation for a building or site continued to drag on.

1845: In February rooms were taken in Stanley Buildings, Bath Street and opened as a Seamen's Savings bank, Shipping Office and Registry. Queen Victoria agreed to become patron of the larger institute to be.

1846: In July 1846 the Canning Place site was finally secured and the foundation stone was laid by His Royal Highness Prince Albert on Friday 31 July..........more

1849: Captain Richard Ainley was appointed Superintendent of the Home.

1850: The building was finally completed and the offices were transferred there from Bath Street.

1851: In April a successful bazaar was held in the building to augment the institution's funds and it raised a sum of £5,000. The total cost of the home, excluding the land, was £30,000.

1852: In October Thomas Hanmer was recommended for appointment as cashier, accountant and secretary of the Home; and in December it opened for the reception of boarders. In its fist year it boarded 1,922 seamen and 410 apprentices, and the great majority of them "expressed their most perfect satisfaction, not unmixed with gratitude" for the comfort and convenience the Home afforded them.

The Home then showed steady growth.

1859: 4,357 boarders were booked; and £15,827 was dealt with by them in current accounts.

The Home appeared to be on the highway to prosperity when progress was abruptly checked.

1860: At one o'clock in the morning of 29 April 1860 fire broke out in H flat, on the top floor but one of the Home, and in a very few minutes the pitch-pine fittings of the upper flat were ablaze.

"Mr Hanmer, who then lived in Oxford Street, was aroused and driven speedily to the Home. The flames quickly spread and the fine building was soon burning from end to end and form basement to roof. Under the directions of Mr Hanmer such members of the staff as were present, assisted by volunteers, succeeded in saving the principal books of the Home. A melancholy episode, however, attended this operation. Seeing that one of the volunteer assistants was in imminent peril, as a heavy iron beam ahead was on the point of falling, Mr Hanmer, who was himself only a few feet away, called to the man to come from his dangerous position. The warning had hardly been given ere the beam fell, bearing the unfortunate man to the ground and holding him pinned down and exposed to the burning debris and to the molten lead which was then raining from the gutted roof. Mr Hanmer was also imprisoned by the fallen beam and the debris which it brought with it, and more than an hour elapsed before he could be reached. He was taken out and conveyed home unconscious. He had been saved from what, for a time, seemed certain death, but the experience of that hour, during which he was imprisoned in the midst of that burning mass, was so terrible that his hair turned white. Few of the many people with whom Mr Hanmer has since come into contact know that the peculiar whiteness of his hair was due to the strain of that awful time, when the hand of death seemed to be laid upon him, and the unfortunate helper lay slowly dying, in terrible suffering, a few feet from him."

The fire involved a loss of more than £11,000 but the building was insured and work of reconstruction was at once begun and pushed vigorously on. A new and modernised interior, making the Home practically fire proof, took the place of the old one and was much more pleasant in appearance and convenient for working.

"Mr Hanmer's exertions during the fire won for him many warm encomiums, and the Committee of the Home were not slow to mark their appreciation of his conduct at that trying time. A long illness having compelled the retirement of Captain Ainley, after eleven years of faithful and valued service as Superintendent of the Home, the vacant position was given to Mr Hanmer, he filling the dual office of Manager and Secretary."

1861: Restoration of the Home was completed and work went on once more.

1863: The number of boarders had risen to 6,011, and more business then ever was being done in the banking departments.

The large extension of docks towards the North End of Liverpool and Bootle led the Committee of the Home to decide upon the erection of a branch Home near the new north docks, and a site was purchased at Luton Street.

1876: The foundation stone for the new branch Home was laid.

1878: The North End Home was opened by the Right Hon Viscount Sandon MP, President of the Board of Trade.

Sadly the North End Home didn't do as well as Canning Place, largely due to the displacement of sailing ships by steamers and the growth of the "Midge system" - which changed the conditions under which many seamen came to Liverpool.

1885: After a trial of nearly seven years the North End Home closed.

The next few years saw fluctuations in the numbers of boarders using the Home, and the steady increase of the earlier years was not maintained. The causes were evident: the large displacement of sailing ships by steamers and the greater size of the steamers caused a decrease in the number of vessels, and shorter voyages all combined to reduce the number of seamen wanting temporary homes in Liverpool.

1897: 5,735 seamen used the Home, an increase of 27 over 1896. And £27,056 passed through the deposit department, an increase of about £3,700 over the previous year.

"Mr Hanmer's long term of management was marked by an unwaning desire on his part to promote the best interests of the seamen and apprentices using the Canning Place institution. Nothing was spared which could be reasonably done to make the life of the inmates as home-like and cheerful as possible. Concerts, entertainments, and musical evenings were regularly arranged for and Christmas-tides spent at the Liverpool Sailors' Home were times which lived long in the memory of seamen of all nationalities.

After 46 years of valued service, Mr Thomas Hanmer resigned the managership of the Liverpool Sailors' Home in 1896, failing health necessitating this step. The Committee placed on record their appreciation of the invaluable services rendered by Mr Hanmer to the cause of the sailor, and of the Uniform loyalty and devotion with which he had always seconded their efforts as a committee.

On Mr Hanmer's retirement his eldest son, Mr John Marsden Hanmer, who had for some years acted as assistant manager, was appointed to the management of the Home. He is actuated by that same kindly feeling towards seamen which so strongly marked his father's character.

The movement which led to the establishment of the Seamen's Orphanage in Newsham Park had its inception in a kind and spontaneous action of Mr Thomas Hanmer's. A letter in which the case of the sailors' orphans was stated with forcible and pathetic eloquence, appeared in the columns of the Liverpool press of that time. The letter, which was written by Mr Hanmer, was signed anonymously and attracted the attention of several liberal-minded men who were interested in the seamen of Liverpool. The direct result of this was the fine and popular institution in Newsham Park."

.....click here.....and here.....for more background on the Liverpool Sailors' Home