Together Trust Archive

On Saturday 10 th October 1891, the first ever street collection for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was held in a place you would not typically associate with the sea – Manchester. The inland city of Manchester may be known for its Ship Canal, but residents were moved to support the families of the 27 RNLI lifeboatmen, from St Anne's and Southport, who lost their lives  rescuing crew members from the sunken vessel, Mexico,  some five years earlier .

Like many archives across the UK and Ireland, we have been sharing stories and images from the archive on Twitter for Explore Your Archive 2020.

The monthly magazines created by the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges and Homes have always been an interesting representation of the charity’s work and activities. Originally established in 1879 as The Christian Worker , the magazine aimed to provide news and events about the charity to interested parties. Consequently, it gave a more detailed account of the services and looked more into the social aspects of the charity rather than the administrative ones.

Over the last twelve months we’ve written several blogs on the Refuge’s involvement in World War One and how it was a ffected, both through the boys that fought for their country and the financial restrictions at home. With 2014 marking 100 years since the outbreak of the War, it has been important to mark the sacrifices made by the charity. However it is not the only war that our Refuge boys have fought in.  Extract from the Children’s Haven, 1900

We’ve spoke before on this blog about a training ship moored in Birkenhead called the Indefatigable . The Refuge had an arrangement with the committee of the Indefatigable to take boys who entered the Refuge and had a constitution for the sea. Hundreds made the short trip across to Merseyside to learn the sailor life and went on to have successful careers in the Navy. On board the Indefatigable

Today we tell a story from the Children’s Haven in regards to Thomas, a Refuge boy who ended up on the charity’s training ship, the Indefatigable . Thomas first came to the attention of the Manchester and Salford Refuge in 1896 when he turned up at midnight at the open-all-night shelter on Chatham Street, accompanied by a policeman. At the tender age of 12 years he had been sleeping on the streets of Manchester as he had nowhere else to go. Thomas on admittance

With the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Gallipoli Campaign coming up on Saturday it seemed apt to have a look at this famous campaign and its links with the Manchester Refuges. The Campaign intended to secure the Gallipoli peninsula, a strait which provided a sea route to the Russian Empire. A naval attack was launched with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople . This was eventually repelled and after eight months of fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt. Marines

We’ve had another ‘lost’ item return to the fold... Front Cover - 'The Children - England's Hope'

The training ship, the Indefatigable , New Ferry, Birkenhead, has been mentioned once before in the early days of this blog . It was often used by the Committee of the Manchester Refuges to give a trade to some of the sturdier boys who came under their care. As new photographs come to light, showing the workings of the ship, we delve back into this little known service. Positioning the cannon

Today we dabble our feet in the water and move off dry land to the port of Birkenhead, following in the footsteps of hundreds of Manchester boys in the late 18th and early 19th century. Their destination? The Indefatigable ! A training ship moored in the River Mersey, which aimed to prepare boys for a life in the Merchant Navy.        Illustration from the Illustrated London News is of the training ship Indefatigable.