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.”