The Salopian Winter 24/25
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SCHOOL NEWS
Camp group on the Common at Shrewsbury, 1920s
after night in search of a more suitable
site. Jim Kennedy, a former mission boy,
describes the moment of destiny in his
History of Shrewsbury House 1903-39:
Eventually they stopped at the corner of
Wakefield and Mansfield Streets, among
the middle of a great slum population,
where they saw the possibility of using the
disused but commodious public house.
The Journey Begins
So the first small steps were taken on a
remarkable journey. Kittermaster’s aims
and vision were clear from the outset.
It is not, be it said from the start, simply
to amuse. It is to develop and form the
characters of the members of our Club …
to teach boys to become straight-living and
straight-thinking honest Christian men.
The Club was built from the outset
on two foundations; the first was
Christianity – it must be a Christian
Mission. The second was that Salopians
must be involved as much as possible;
in the words of Adrian Struvé (master,
long-term member of the committee
and acting missioner in the 1960s), “by
learning to know and love those who
came on regular evenings to be with
them, the Club boys might themselves
be uplifted and civilised in character”.
Here we have the essential ingredients
that throughout the century remained
the moral compass of the enterprise.
Struvé sums up the situation:
The profound deprivation in the poorer
areas of Liverpool was only made worse, if
possible, by the depression. The Mission’s
presence in Everton and the labours of
its leaders were beyond price and nobody
could question the value of the School’s
support.
The early days and years were difficult.
There were turbulent nights in the club
and not infrequently members were
expelled onto the streets. During that
first year there was a camp in August
at Bolton-le-Sands on the shore of
Morecambe Bay for 35 boys.
The first camp was a true adventure.
We sallied forth into the unknown, and
pitched our tents unskilfully … we had no
experience, and sparse equipment, nor any
change of clothes …
In July 1904 the first party of about 30
boys made a visit to Shrewsbury and
were royally entertained by the School on
Kingsland. As the pattern of club life
became established, a football team
(what else!) was formed and played
against the School, usually winning.
A Settled Home and
a Way Ahead
Following a fundraising drive by the
Shrewsbury committee, it became
possible to purchase more suitable
premises in Portland Place. Old
Salopians, boys, the Headmaster and
the diocese raised over £2600. This
allowed the committee to buy four
terraced houses – numbers 31 to 37
Portland Place.
Kittermaster could now say, We no longer
make shift as in the old Club in Mansfield
Street and so I could look clearly once
In camp, 1930
again at the need and vision … rather
than in the dirty and ill-ventilated rooms
of a disused public house. We are now lords
of our own grand premises.
The daily routines were embedded, with
the chapel as the centre around which all
the activities and facilities were focused.
Kittermaster reported in 1907 that
chapel services were consistently well
supported and that it had become the
norm for the Club to be well attended
on Sunday nights.
There was a separate dormitory for
temporary residents such as boys just
out of prison who stayed till work could
be found for them. Others came from
‘reformatories’, but mainly they were
boys from the Akbar Nautical Training
School where Kittermaster was also
chaplain. The Clerk to the Justices of the
City of Liverpool wrote:
Few people know better than I do of the
splendid work being done in Liverpool
by the Mission, and I freely acknowledge
the very great assistance given here at
the Courts and at the prison by Mr
Kittermaster in his readiness to take
boys who only need the right sort of
encouragement to set them up again.
Ten years after taking up the challenge
of establishing the Shrewsbury School
Mission, Kittermaster resigned to take
up the post of Archdeacon of Buenos
Aires in Argentina. The foundations
were laid on the immovable rock of
Faith and devotion to the Master.
Kittermaster’s successors kept faithful
to his aims and vision through the
tough times ahead and the Club thrived
through the First World War and the
Great Depression of the 1930s. More
than 300 members served in the Armed
Forces and the Merchant Marine in the
war. When on leave most boys reported
back to exchange news and renew old
friendships. In the 1920s the summer
camp was switched to Shrewsbury where
the lovely School Site was a perfect place
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