The Ismay Family: Pension Funds for Seamen, Widows and Widows ‘of those whose lives are lost while they are engaged upon active duty’
Above: Thomas Henry Ismay (1837-99). (The Marine Engineer, 1899/Author’s collection)
The driving force and founder of the modern White Star Line (Oceanic Steam Navigation Company), Thomas Henry Ismay, oversaw the growth of a company which made a significant economic contribution to Britain (and Liverpool, in particular). However, the Ismay family also arranged for significant social provision for retired seafarers, their widows, and the widows of those lost at sea.
Thomas Henry Ismay, J. Bruce Ismay’s father, founded the Liverpool Seamen’s Pension Fund in 1887 to provide pensions ‘for deserving seamen of whatever rank sailing from the port of Liverpool, who are past work’. It was intended to provide pensions of £20 a year. (Later, the Margaret Ismay Widows Fund was established to provide for their widows as well.) The Mercantile Marine Service Association administered the fund as the trustees and by c. 1912 it had grown to about £69,000 (£52,000 of which came from contributions either by the Ismay family or the White Star Line). (Its assets were amalgamated into the Nautilus Welfare Fund in 2009.)
By that time, the number of pensioners receiving pension payments was 126. They ranged from 54 to 94 years old and included 38 former commanders, 48 ship’s officers and 40 seamen. During the quarter of a century since the fund had been established, 423 pensioners had received pension payments from the fund, equating to a total of £37,876. (The number of widows receiving a pension from the newer Margaret Ismay Widows Fund was 74.)
Following the Titanic disaster, J. Bruce Ismay returned to the United Kingdom. He arrived in Liverpool onboard the White Star liner Adriatic on Saturday 11 May 1912. He lost no time in writing to the Lord Mayor of Liverpool later the very same day, proposing a new fund providing ‘for widows of those whose lives are lost while they are engaged upon active duty…upon the mercantile vessels of this country’. The ‘terrible disaster to the Titanic’ highlighted the ‘necessity of such a fund’ and he proposed to contribute £10,000 with a further £1,000 from his wife. It would ‘continue for all time’. News of Ismay’s letter apparently reached the press and the Earl of Derby, Lord Mayor of Liverpool sent a telegram to Ismay asking if he could publish it ‘saying I have gratefully accepted your offer?’ Ismay responded: ‘Please act in whatever manner you think best, leave myself entirely in your hands’.
See Chirnside, Mark. The ‘Olympic’ Class Ships: Olympic Titanic & Britannic. History Press; revised and expanded edition 2011.
