23rd March 2016 11am. '"The poor decayed seamen at Greenwich Hospital" – 1705 to 1763’ : Dr Martin Wilcox

• The Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich was founded in 1694, to house elderly and disabled 

  seamen who had served in the Royal Navy, and admitted its first pensioners in 1705.  The Hospital 

  was established on a grand scale, and its buildings remain one of London's finest landmarks and 

  centrepiece of the Greenwich World Heritage Site.  The history of the institution, at least in its broad 

  outlines, is well known, but until now little research has been conducted into the men who inhabited 

  it.

•  

  Based on extensive research in the Hospital archives and a comprehensive database of pensioners 

  admitted prior to 1763, this lecture will look first at the development of the Hospital, before going 

  on to examine the pensioners themselves.  It will look at their lives and careers at sea, the 

  circumstances under which they sought entry to the Hospital, and how they fared within it.  Along 

  the way it will shed a little light on the world of ‘Jack Tar.’

• Martin Wilcox is Lecturer in History at the University of Hull. He has researched and published on 

  various aspects of modern British maritime history, especially the Royal Navy, maritime labour and 

  the fishing industry.  He is the author of Fishing and Fishermen: A Guide for Family Historians 

  (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2009) and co-author of Sustaining the Fleet 1793-1815: War, the British 

  Navy and the Contractor State (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010).  His current research is 

  concerned with the modern history of British deep-sea fishing and the maritime economy of the 

  Humber region.

Venue:  

11 am The Cutty Sark Pub just five minutes east of the Naval College,

4-6 Ballast Quay
Greenwich
London
SE10 9PD

 

Cost

£10 for the lecture plus the cost of the light lunch / finger buffet afterwards

Numbers are strictly limited so please book earl