Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

Bill Spalding

"The Anchor Line"

Bill, a "Caley" member of many years standing, entertained us with his display on "The Anchor Line". It was begun in the mid 19th century by the Handyside brothers (who had ships serving Baltic ports) later joined by the Henderson brothers (who had ships serving transatlantic ports). In 1907 the line the company moved to new premises in central Glasgow (Anchor Lane) and its ships berthed at Yorkhill. Donaldson's shipping, who served Canadian ports, amalgamated with the company in 1916 and carried many emigrant to North America. Bill displayed postcards and other ephemera relating to the line including calendars, letterheads, menu and post cards, passenger lists and concert programmes. Also on show were postcards showing various Mediterranean scenes these coming from their Italy (principally) routes to USA, again carrying migrants.

For his second round Bill showed us more "Anchor Line" ephemera including menus, programmes of music from their cruise operations one of which was entitled "The Millionaires Cruise". Stamps depicting Anchor Line ships from Yemen featured, one of which showed the "Dido", the first ship to pass north to south on the Suez Canal the day after it opened. Other material in Bill's collection included material from the Empire Exhibitions of 1924 & 1938 along with material relating to the Transylvania which was torpedoed & sunk. Bill concluded by mentioning the "Caledonia", a name the line had used on 6 ships, the first in 1862, the last in 1986.

More information on the Anchor line can be found here .

Ken Norris proposed the vote of thanks to an excellent, and fascinating, display.