Queen Mother started Christmas tradition for sailors' orphans
BBCThe economy of Hull was built on the sea, but prosperity came at a cost. Over the centuries, thousands of seafarers lost their lives and their children were often left orphaned.
For more than 200 years, the Sailors' Children's Society has cared for those young people, winning support not only from the people of Hull, but from influential patrons around the country, including members of the Royal Family.
Diana, Princess of Wales, Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, were among royal visitors to the charity's homes for orphans in Cottingham Road during the 20th Century, as the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has been hearing.
The Queen Mother became a patron of the charity in 1935 and never forgot the children, according to Mary Rose "Mo" Barker, a former chairwoman of the society.
"The Queen Mum came in 1960 and she toured the homes," she recalls.
"She kept very much in touch with the society and every Christmas one of her aides would ring and find out how many children we had in residence and she'd send a box of chocolates for each child and that continued throughout her life."
The society was founded in 1821.
"Seafarers tended to have large families and there were great losses at sea," says Debbie Rosenberg, the vice-president. "The society's motto for a long time was, the society tries to take the place of the parent when the sea has taken its toll.
"At any one time we are supporting 200 families, which is 500 children, at the end of the day, a child does not choose the role of the parent. They are just the victims of what's happened when you have a life at sea."
The homes in Cottingham Road were established as a model village of 10 houses, around a green in 1893 and a school, St Nicholas, was also built.
"It had a school, it had a hospital, and the society's royal patron, the Prince of Wales, gave £20 for the sports fund," Rosenberg says.
In addition to children from Hull, others came from Grimsby and as far away as Middlesbrough in the north and Lowestoft in the south.
Barker remembers visiting children in the homes, which were run like a family, with a "house mother" in charge.
"Sometimes I'd go around tea time when the children all came home from school.
"They usually were having tea in the kitchen and there was a lovely warm aga in the kitchen which had been donated by some kind person some years before and I'd prop myself up against the aga and listen and join in with the conversation and get to know about their everyday lives."
"We tried very hard to make it as near as what they would have had at home."
The royal visits were among the most memorable moments over the decades.
On one occasion, during the 1980s, Barket showed Princess Margaret around the site.
"She arrived on the visit and I had the honour of taking her around the school at Little Newland School, St Nicholas," she says.
"Miss Turner, the headmistress, had got all the children to draw pictures of royalty and their idea of royalty. And so the whole of the main hall was strewn with pictures of palaces and crowns and their idea of what royalty was like. It was fascinating and Princess Margaret really enjoyed seeing them and meeting some of the children."
She left the princess with children in one of the orphan homes.
"I understand they had felt it was going to be quite a formal affair. But no, none of it.
"The princess walked into the sitting room and immediately announced that she was going to pour the tea out and I suppose put down her handbag and gloves and sat and very much joined in with the tea party, which was very much appreciated by the children.
Princess Diana Archive/Getty ImagesBarker was also involved in the visit of Princess Diana in 1991.
"She came very informally and it was the first time we had never had people standing in lines to meet her.
"The traditional way before then of having a royal was the great and the good stood in a line and shook hands, but no, none of that.
"She wanted to talk and meet everyone. She gave great joy on that visit and talked to everybody and seemed very interested in what we were doing."
Two centuries on, the society is still going strong and, while the homes in Cottingham Road now house student accommodation, the school is still in use.
"My big memory is the amount of people who've supported the society from Hull and East Yorkshire," Barker says.
"I think the society owes a great debt to those people for bringing us through the very difficult two wars and to still have a society like we have today."
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