Charles John Crix

Charles John Crix was born on 2nd January 1894 on Foulness Island but the family moved to Burnham-on-Crouch by the time he was six. During the First World War, he served in the Merchant Navy as a cook and, after the war, as a pastrycook in Walworth, South London. He married Mildred Deavin in 1920.

In 1927 he joined the London City Mission and after a short probationary period took over Milton Hall, an evangelical gospel hall in Battersea. He was transferred to Nunhead, in Peckham, in 1935 but in 1941, when the blitz was at its height, he resigned and became a Rest Centre Manager, looking after people who had been bombed out of their homes.

Somewhere about 1942 he joined the British Sailors’ Society and became Port Missionary/Manager of the Sailors’ Rest at Ipswich and remained there for the rest of the war. The Rest not only served sailors coming into the Ipswich docks but also Royal Naval seamen based at Harwich so the Rest was very busy during this period.

In August 1946, he was moved to Barry in South Wales and served there until October 1954. The Sailors’ Rest celebrated its 60th Anniversary whilst he was there and this was what prompted these photographs to be taken. He then, briefly, managed the King Edward VII Hall in Cromwell Road, Kensington before becoming an Appeals Organizer in January 1956.

He died in 1959, the day after his 65th birthday.
 

Barry Sailors’ Rest

Barry Docks was built as a rival to Cardiff to export coal from the Welsh coalmines. But as the coal industry declined, so did the docks and, as the docks declined, the need for a Rest declined. In the 1950’s, the Sailors’ Rest was still fairly active but the decline had already started.

Photo by Bromhead (Bristol) Ltd of 157 Whiteladies Road, Bristol
click on each image to enlarge

Billiard Room

This was actually a multi-purpose room: a games room, and a lounge. It was the venue for a traditional Dinner on Christmas Day as the canteen was not normally big enough to accommodate everybody. Any sailors coming into port at this time would normally go home if they possibly could, though the Rest was open (as on every other day of the year) but there were always quite a few people around. Once (and only once to my recollection) a ship docked late on Christmas Eve and public transport had stopped so men could not get home. So my father had a particularly busy day ensuring they had as good a Christmas as possible.

Photo by Bromhead (Bristol) Ltd of 157 Whiteladies Road, Bristol
click on image to enlarge
 

Writing Room

The writing and reading rooms, separated by a partition, were usually opened up to make one room. It was also sometimes used as a chapel and there were weekly film shows during the winter and a Film Service on Sundays. This view is looking towards the large bay window.

Photo by Bromhead (Bristol) Ltd of 157 Whiteladies Road, Bristol
click on image to enlarge
 

Film Show

The film shows, of standard feature films that had been released on 16mm, were always very well attended. We didn’t normally have the mayor, of course, and this was almost certainly a film show as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1951. The committee and other dignitaries are all sitting in the comfortable armchairs at the front whilst the sailors are at the back.

It is not known who took this photograph
click on image to enlarge

My father, as Port Missionary, was always taken out at Christmas in the Barry lifeboat to the Breaksea lightship, moored in the Severn Estuary. It was dependent on the weather as, although the lifeboat could always launch, if the sea was heavy it was impossible to get aboard the lightship. He took presents with him and held a short service on board.

Photograph by Reginald Piper, 261 Holton Road, Barry
click on image to enlarge

Ipswich Sailors’ Rest

From about 1942-1945, my father managed the Sailors’ Rest at Ipswich. It was an interesting building but unfortunately the only photograph I have of it is this one of the main lounge. The grey suited young man sitting in an armchair on the right is my brother, Fred. He was in the Royal Navy at the time and evidently was home on leave. I am skulking behind the counter.

Photograph by St.Lawrence Studios, Ipswich
click on image to enlarge