One of Fremantle’s most travelled streets, and not only for cars, but also pedestrians, would be Marine Terrace and while most of the buildings between Cliff Street and the Esplanade Hotel give a nod to Fremantle’s Heritage, there is one building that needs some TLC and that is the old Sailors’ Rest building. Today, no one would have any idea what the building used to be and how it important it was in Fremantle’s maritime history, as well as it’s connection to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union who were instrumental in achieving the right for women to vote in Western Australia. And while the building is today part of Notre Dame University it is hard to describe it as anything other than Fremantle’s most boring building. Given that the building is located in a prime tourist spot, it deserves a little more respect and glamour than what is given to it today. So I have put together a potted history of the Sailors’ Rest and the Mission to Seamen/Seafarers aka The Flying Angel Club and this will be serialized over the next few weeks.
1818 – The British Sailors Society was formed in March 1818 as the Port of London Society. (This was the inaugural international seafarer’s society, but it was not the Mission to Seamen.) The earliest symbol of the seamen’s mission movement was the adoption of the Bethel flag, circa 1822. This was a blue flag with the word BETHEL printed across the centre of the flag with a white star showing above the word and a white dove with an olive branch below it. And so the word Bethel began to become associated with organizations affiliated with the British Sailors Society.
1856 – The Missions to Seamen was founded by John Ashley, an Anglican Priest. The Flying Angel flag was adopted in 1858 and that flag, in similar colours to the Bethel flag showed a flying angel carrying a bible in the centre of the flag with the words ‘The Mission’ above the Angel and the words ‘To Seamen’ below and so the Flying Angel became synonymous with the Mission to Seamen/Seafarers.
1875 – From May 1875 until December 1875, James Freeman had advertised his Fremantle Boarding House as the Sailors’ Home and Dining Room. This was a privately run boardinghouse and had no affiliation with the either of the international run seafarers institutes. No more was heard of it after December 1875
1876 – The Royal Sailors Rest was inaugurated by Agnes, (Aggie) Weston, (Later Dame Aggie Weston.) This was an organization which primarily catered to sailors within the Royal Navy, but through the work of Aggie Weston was strongly associated with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which was later instrumental in the formation of the Sailors’ Rest in Fremantle.
1883 – In August 1883, a Temperance Crusade meeting was held in Fremantle on behalf of Matthew Burnett, a prominent Temperance Advocate. In attendance at this meeting was the prominent Fremantle businessman and politician EH Higham, who advised the meeting that he ‘would on a future occasion bring forward some practical suggestion as to the formation of a Coffee Palace and a Sailors’ Home in the town.’ (The Herald, 25/8/1883) However, nothing was to come of this for another nine years and it was not until 1892 that the Sailors Rest was established in Fremantle.
1892/July – On 28 July 1892, Fremantle was visited by Miss Jessie Ackermann, the worldwide missionary for the Women’s Christian Temperance movement and during a speech at the Wesley Church Fremantle she advocated the formation of a branch of the WCTU and as reported by The West Australian, 29/7/1892, ‘At the conclusion of the address, a large number subscribed their names upon the roll of foundation members of the new branch of the Union, the office-bearers of which are to be finally elected at the first general meeting of members.’
1892/August – Miss Ackermann’s visit to WA generated a lot of momentum for the advancement of women’s interest within the colony and on the 16th August she led a deputation of 55 women to meet with the Premier, John Forrest. Amongst them was Rosa Smith who was to become the champion of sailors’ interest in Fremantle and the long term Superintendant of the Sailors’ Rest. At this meeting Mrs Smith ‘said she had come on behalf of the sailors. At present there was no accommodation for sailors arriving in Fremantle but that given in the public house. They wanted to form a Sailors’ Rest. The Masonic Hall was open to them at £ 2 pound a week, which however was beyond their means, and they asked the Government to give them a piece of land upon which they could erect a building and turn it into a Sailors’ Rest, and open reading room and coffee rooms for the sailors.’ The Premier responded to this request by saying ‘With regard to the Home they had referred to and also the Sailors’ Home, if any properly organized institution applied for any assistance or land for the purpose of doing any good work for the benefit of sailors, or women, or anyone else, the Government would assist them as far as it could.’ (The West Australian, 17/8/92)
End of part one