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Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1926, Page 2

Mr Havelock Williams lias been described as the British seamen’s best friend. He is one of the sane Labour leaders, always striving for industrial peace, and he has succeeded admirably in his effort. The life of Havelock Wilson has been one of stress and struggle, but never has liis determination to continue the light for the betterment of his fellow-seamen flagged at any stage of his career as an official of the Seamen’s Union—a career which has lasted nearly fifty years, and which has seen the conditions of the men who man our ships improved out of all recognition. Now in his 08th. year, Havelock Wilson was horn at Sunderland, a shipping and ,ship-building port, where he sniffed the sea and smell of ships with his first breath. Ho had a brief education at a Quaker school, but at the age of nine, was working as an errand hoy for a few shillings a week, later being apprenticed to a printer. Hut the masts of the ships in the Tyne proved" too attractive, and he went to-isca in a Geordie collier at the age of thirteen. In after years lie made many voyages to different parts of the world in sail and steam, and was for five years in the Royal Naval ‘Reserve. Ho left the. sea. and, after conducting a temperanco hotel, set about his life’s work, founding the Sailors and Firemen’s Tin ion, of which ho has ever since been the general president. As leader of the British mercantile seamen, he. has shone as a conspicuous success—moderate yet determined on a fair thing, capable, and inextinguishable by the fiercest opposition, either from within or without the ranks of unionism. He has been in the forefront ever since the great seaman’s strike of 1911. in which the owners capitulated and the men gained a great victory. Since then, shipowners have recognised in Havelock Wilson a doughty champion for the rights of the seamen, hut also a fighter who believes in conciliation and who is open to reason. Some time ago owners am] union shared in the expense of a dinner to celebrate a decade of peace, when peers, shipowners, captains, seamen and firemen, together with their wives and daughters toasted each other with . champagne.