Hi Allan, The Seaman's United Protection Society would be a Friendly Society, not a union. A friendly society was a voluntary mutual organisation whose main purpose is to assist members (usually financially) during sickness, unemployment or retirement, and to provide life assurance. Friendly societies have been governed by legislation in the United Kingdom for more than 200 years, the first Friendly Society Act was introduced in 1793. Joseph Havelock Wilson, 29, created the National Amalgamated Sailors and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1887, from his temperance hotel and coffee shop at 174 High Street East. It was succeeded in 1893 by the National Sailors and Firemen's Union, the name was changed to The National Union of Seamen in 1926. In 1990 the union amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Stan