The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society or the Shipwrecked Mariners Society for short, is a national charity founded in 1839, which operates throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, whose purpose is to provide help to former merchant seamen, fishermen and their widows and dependants who are in need. The Society, which operates through a national network of volunteers known as Honorary Agents, deals with over 2,000 cases of need a year and is based in Chichester, West Sussex. The society was founded at the instigation of Mr. John Rye, (married to Ann, a daughter of Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet), a philanthropic retired medical man of Bath, Somerset and his servant Mr. Charles Gee Jones, born in Weston-super-Mare, a former Bristol pilot and landlord of the Pulteney Arms in Bath, following the tragic loss of life from the Clovelly fishing fleet in a severe storm in November 1838. Aided by Sir Jahleel Brenton, at that time governor of Greenwich Hospital, Mr. Rye succeeded in establishing the Society, and of collecting a respectable sum as a first subscription, initially by going from house to house in Bath collecting half crowns. The portrait (below) of Mr. Rye and Mr. Gee Jones was painted to commemorate the founding of the Society, which now hangs in the boardroom of the Society's Headquarters in Chichester. More information...
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