The Railway Mission seems to be an international mission organisation. It was widespread in Victorian and Edwardian times > Railway Mission, The; 1881; 1, Adam Street, Strand, W.C.; The > spiritual, moral and physical welfare of railway employés. One > thousand religious and temperance meetings are held by the Mission > every week. > > Railway Mission Convalescent Homes; 1887; Ditto; Has Convalescent > Homes at St. Leonards-on-Sea and Southport, exclusively for railway > men of all lines. It is still in existence and has a website. http://www.railwaymission.org/. and can be contacted at The Railway Mission Room 4 Denison House North Hexthorpe Road Doncaster DN4 0EL United Kingdom ( There is also now a railway engine called 'Railway Mission') There was one in Birmingham near St Mary's Acock's Green > St. Mary's used to have several outlying buildings. The Church House > opened c. 1908 at the corner of Arden Road and Rookwood Road, and > since about 1983 has been in the hands of Birmingham City Mission. A > mission room was opened at Spring Road in 1881, and was moved to > Summer Road as St. Gabriel's when the North Warwickshire Line was > about to be built, c. 1905, as the line would have gone through the > chapel. This mission room was replaced by a Memorial Hall in 1928/9. > The idea had been to have a permanent chapel there, but it was decided > that a room for social and recreation purposes was needed. Another > room, the Jubilee Hall behind the Memorial Hall, was opened in 1936: > money for it was raised in part by Leonard Skan, a well-known local > milkman. There were tennis courts and other sports facilities on site > (thanks to Kath Huckfield for help with this information). Around > 1938, a Railway Mission Room opened next to the railway at Spring > Road, but it did not belong to St. Mary's. It is still there, as a > Congregational chapel. and British History on-line has this to say about the building in St Andrew's Street. Bromford Lane Birches Green Evangelical Free Church was registered for public worship in 1947. (fn. 59) St. Andrew's Street, Small Heath Dr. Crabbe Memorial Mission was established in the former Railway Mission hall in St. Andrew's Street in 1948. The mission appears to have been founded about 1918, in honour of the former superintendent of the Birmingham Medical Mission, q.v., and occupied the Dr. Crabbe Memorial Hall, Bordesley Street, from 1925 to 1947. (fn. 60) Immediately prior to the move to St. Andrew's Street it met at a hall in Sandy Lane, belonging to the Presbyterian Church. (fn. 61) HTH Anne On 5 Jan 2007, at 14:28, Allan Halstead wrote: > My wife's grandfather, Benjamin George HARRIS, died on the Somme on > 1/7/1916 aged 21. > > His Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate shows his parents > as Walter and Annie HARRIS of Railway Mission House, St. Andrew's St., > Birmingham but I'm having no luck in tracing them. > > I've tried Googling "Birmingham Railway Mission House" but to no avail. > > Is it likely that the family would have been living there as > caretakers, and if so, are there likely to be any employment records > anywhere? > > Incidentally, my wife was also christened at this Mission House in > 1938. > > Any help would be much appreciated. > > Regards, > > Allan Halstead