[Following the death of Daisy Cowper’s seafaring father at sea in 1895, her brother Harry’s spell at an orphanage was intended to ease a period of destitution for the family of nine children and their mother]

Then came separation, for mother accepted an offer from the Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage Institution to take one boy, and Harry, poor chappie, seemed the best choice. He was as happy there as was possible away from home, liked his new chums and pleased his teachers. The Orphanage, school and chapel, stood in Newsham Park, and friends of the children were allowed to attend the chapel service (C. of E.) each Sunday afternoon. The orphans, girls and boys, filed in, in a double line, along a stone corridor from the school, the smallest first. I shall never forget the utter misery to me, comparable with little Marigo’s funeral, of the first Sunday of Harry’s sojourn there, when I was taken to see Harry. To begin with, the organ music had the even-yet saddening effect on me, then came the regular, slow, measured tread of approaching feet along a stone passage, and as I peeped, there, leading the procession, dressed like a sailor, was our Harry with another little sailor-boy the same size [.]