Reverend John Patton - British Sailors' Society
The Reverend John Patton was appointed to Ocean Road Congregational Church, South Shields in 1937. He lived with his wife Anna and daughter Evelyn at 27 Marine Approach, South Shields. Evelyn wrote a 3 page article about her father's experiences during World War Two. Because of a childhood illness he was not called up for war service.
"Once he was walking by the lake in Marine Park a bomb dropped and he instinctively crouched right down. He was unharmed. But the raid killed all the swans and the impact was so immense. Muddy water was spewed up, splattering windows of houses nearby. It was awful. We were cleaning windows for ages afterwards."
In 1941 John Patton accepted an invitation to become the Chaplain for the British Sailors' Society based in North Shields and covering an area from Berwick down to Hull. One of his roles was to break the bad news of the loss of a relative. In an article written for the British Sailors' Society it is reported:
"Mr. Patton says that, out of his twenty years' experience, the work which comes most vividly to mind is the ever-recurring task of breaking the terrible news of loss of life at sea. North and South Shields lost more men at sea during the war than did any other comparable area in the British Isles, and in that time Mr. Patton visited more than one thousand homes to carry out his sad duty. In one case four visits were made to the same address at intervals of a few days. Three sons (including twins) and the father were lost at sea. No wonder that the distracted woman, when asked how she had borne this, replied "It seems that God helps you without your knowing it!!' In one weekend Mr. Patton covered two hundred miles, visiting thirty homes with sad news, from Middlesboro' to Berwick on the coast, and inland to Alston. Mr. Patton says that no matter how often the task recurred he could never become accustomed to it and always felt that he was personally involved in the grief and suffering of those most nearly concerned."
In 1946 he went to Hamburg with the British Sailors' Society and met with other members of the clergy. The Reverend John Patton died in 1967.
