Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Birkenhead Town Hall - Sailor's Fund

Whilst researching another topic, I stumbled across the fact that Birkenhead Town Hall seemed to be used a lot for charitable events. One of which was a "Sailors and Soldiers" event, which was for orphans in the town. Which makes sense, because World War I was actively going on during this time and must have created many orphans. I read a figure that said 600 were invited to one of the events.

The "Sailors and Soldiers" events ran throughout the 1920's from what I can see. There's little to no information on the web about these events. Does anyone have a list of all these events? Photographs or newspaper clippings would be great to see. Or if anyone knows where I can find more information about these events? Surely this information must be archived somewhere. It seems like a big part of our WWI history, not just for the army themselves, but for their families back home in Birkenhead.

It was the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association. In 1885, Queen Victoria became patron. I think prior there was a Patriotic Fund dating back to the 1800s. In 1914 there was 1800 families in Birkenhead receiving assistance from the fund. There are many snippets in the Birkenhead News which I haven't got access to, you will have to subscribe to FMP or British Newspaper Online.

I'll give the Birkenhead News a look, very interested to research it. It sounds like it was good thing for all those affected by losing parents in the war.

SSFA is still going today, it was renamed to SSAFA in 1919 after the military decided it should start flapping its arms and become a triservice.