This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
HISTORIC CRUISING Photo by Marc Walter © P&O Heritage


Group of images on the left: P&O Brochure featuring VECTIS, taken from a Pocket Book dated 1908. Design after a painting by Charles Dixon; ‘RANCHI in the Suez Canal’, painted in oils by Charles Pears; ‘The P&O Headquarters in Hong Kong’, painted in watercolour and ink on paper, Chinese School; The P&O Crest from a pre-War liner; a large Victorian nine-light centrepiece (candelabrum) presented to Arthur Anderson by the Company in 1855; ‘Garniture de Cheminee’, presented to the Company by the Khedive of Egypt, Ishmail Pacha, in August 1865; Music Montage featuring items from P&O Heritage Collection; MEDINA leaving Portsmouth for the Durbar at Delhi with King George V and Queen Mary on board, November 1911, painted in oils by William Lionel Wyllie. © P&O Heritage


Collecting STEERED BY A COX


by Royal Charter to carry mail to Alexandria and between Suez and Calcutta. Before the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, mail had to be carried overland between Alexandria and Suez. The Charter enabled the company to raise £1million to fund the new venture. This was a considerable amount of money in 1840 and the original charter, written on parchment with an engraved decorated border and the wax seal of Queen Victoria, is proudly displayed in a


prominent place in the modern building. In 1845, the mail service was extended to Singapore, Hong Kong and, a year later, to Shanghai. An imposing two-storey building with a distinctive cast-iron balcony was constructed for P&O on the waterfront at Victoria, Hong Kong. A watercolour of this building, known locally as the ‘iron house,’ dates from 1855 and shows the early beginnings of the great bustling metropolis. Among other oriental artwork, there is a fine silk painting of P&O’s Japanese-style headquarters in Yokohama, opened in 1866. P&O’s dynamic chairman Sir John Pirie commissioned a series of enormous portraits of the founding fathers in 1850, which were presented as a gift to the company. The artist chosen was Thomas Francis Dicksee, a leading portraitist of the day. These monumental paintings used to grace P&O’s Pall Mall boardroom and are now suspended above the modern glass atrium – the first things visitors see upon arrival. Another portrait of note is by leading


Edwardian portrait painter John Singer Sargent. His large oil of Sir Thomas Sutherland, chairman for 33 years, was commissioned by


‘The Games Deck’ from pre-launch CANBERRA brochure Winter 2012-13 I WORLD OF CRUISING 95 


For the past 20 years, the driving force behind the P&O Heritage Collection has been SUSIE COX. A graduate in Art


History, Susie and her team of three dedicated professionals manage the vast worldwide P&O collection. One of their key tasks is to bring what is essentially a private collection to a wider audience through the Heritage website, licensed merchandise and two new books. When not in her office,


Susie can usually be found in a kayak or exploring the Arctic on skis. In 2004 she joined a


Royal Naval Expedition following Sir John and James Clark Ross’s 1828- 1832 expedition to find the North West passage.


Photo: Tricia De Courcy-Ling


Photo by Marc Walter © P&O Heritage


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