Historical information

The magazine Picture News, published by the Herald and Weekly Times in December 1939, shows how sailors were entertained at the mission. The photographs depict sailors having a good time, dancing with the ladies from the guild and even Mrs Moira Oliver, Padre Oliver's wife, playing ping pong, sining with pianist Mrs Helen Ellis.
Padre Oliver was then chaplain on the HMAS Australia, and Rev. Dixon Tracy was the interim chaplain at the mission.

Significance

The photographs demonstrate the work of the mission during the war.
The Picture News was a short lived magazine first published in November 1939 and ceased in 1940.

Physical description

4 pages of the magazine Picture News, Picture News Volume 1, number 5 dated 2 December 1939: Page 3 to 6 illustrated with photographs form the Seamen Mission's entertainments offered during the war.