Indian Seamen's Institute, Liverpool

Lascar Club

Run by the Mersey Mission to Seamen, the Indian Seamen’s Institute was set up to provide entertainment for lascars in Liverpool as well as help, guidance and support. As part of their welfare work there was also religious instruction.

The Mission built a new building to house the club, which opened in May 1925, to which the Government of India and India Office made a donation. The Mission had worked among Liverpool’s lascar community for over twenty-three years in a small iron building, supported by an Indian Missioner under the instruction of Reverend Thurlow, superintendent of the Mission. The Institute traces its legacy to the Birkenhead Mission to Asiatic Seamen and the Lascar Institute, which were also run by the Mission.

The Lascar Institute was first mentioned in Mission minutes in 1910 and superseded by the new Indian Seamen’s Institute. The new Institute and premises were in direct response to the increasing number of Indian seafarers seeking out the Mission. During 1924, 12,580 Indian seamen attended but they were unable to accommodate all of them. The Indian Missioner had visited some 238 hospitalized lascars in that year. The opening was attended by 250 men.

The initiative cost £2,800 but donations only covered a fraction of this. The Mission thanked the authorities for official financial support, citing that their appeal for charitable donations for this initiative had not been successful and fell short of expectations.