In 1815 Brodie McGhie Willcox, a Shetlander with no social advantages, opened a shipbroking office in Lime Street, London. His clerk was Arthur Anderson. By 1822 the two were partners in a concern unsurprisingly named Willcox and Anderson. During a prolonged uprising against the Portuguese monarchy, this small company supported the royalists by running guns between 1824 and 1826 in a schooner. The rebellion having been put down in 1833 normal trading was resumed, with Willcox and Anderson receiving the blessing of royalty. Short voyage steamships were chartered from the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company. After further political problems in Spain, which subsided in 1835, the Dublin and London S.P. Co. were encouraged into starting a regular steamship mail service: which Willcox and Anderson ran for them. These two men had already been trying to put such a service together and with building of better suited vessels in 1836, they officially became the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company about a year later. At this time they also operated in the Mediterranean as far as Malta and Alexandria.

Further potentially lucrative mail contracts followed, including the Ceylon to Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong route in 1844. Five years later Shanghai became a feeder for Hong Kong. In 1852-53 a route to Australia followed. Not that it was all plain sailing. There was still competition from the East India Company and also shortages of coal in the early 1850s created major problems. As well as mail contracts, there was other government work in the form of trooping for the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny. In 1864 a run from Shanghai to Yokohama was begun. By 1871 the Suez Canal brought further problems, rendering most of their vessels out of date. In response new vessels began to be built from 1873 onwards.

There had been further wartime trooping for the Egyptian adventure of 1882. All this experience may well have put them in good stead in government circles. Due to naval trooping vessels being scrapped, P & O vessels were chartered for the annual moves during the 1890s and this became a regular task Of course, P & O also attracted their share of trooping work during the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902. Increasing their market share, the assets and goodwill of the Blue Anchor Line were acquired in 1910, with further entry into Australia from South Africa. The summer of 1914 brought take over of the British India S.N. Co. Ltd., which they previously enjoyed good business relations with. (Corporate histories tend to call this an amalgamation, but while this looks to genuinely have been the case, nevertheless, the new board had twelve old P & O directors, to B.I.s eight.) Anyway, British India’s trading patterns acted as feeders for P&O.

War or not, in 1916 there was the acquisition of the New Zealand Shipping Co and the Federal S.N. Co. The next year, at a time when many companies ceased to exist, the Union Steamship Company of N.Z., the Nourse Line and the Hain S.S. Co. followed into P & O. In 1919 the Khedivial Mail Line was bought (but ditched five years later). Also, in the same year a large, but minority, share holding of the Orient Line was acquired. A North Sea short trading arm was added in 1920 with the acquisition of the General Steam Navigation Co. Fifteen years later brought the Moss-Hutchison Line into the group.

Nevertheless, the group had had its share of both war and peacetime tribulations. Even if wartime losses had been made up by government compensation there was still the not insignificant problems in rebuilding lost business. After the Second World War there was the added complexity of air travel as increasingly serious competition.

In 1958 there was a short-lived name change for the passenger liner operations, followed two years by another: to the P & O and Orient Lines (Passenger Services) Ltd. In 1965 the group finally got full control of the Orient Line and a year later the company became P & O, dropping the ‘Orient’ name. The group continues to trade, but the ‘great’ liners have now gone.

The company records loaned to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich are voluminous, but those of interest genealogically are ledgers containing details of employees. Originally these would have been complex. Primarily individual’s full company records would have been retained onboard vessels presently served on, but there was obviously correspondence with company offices ashore, such as at Bombay. It also appears likely that these company offices were responsible for relaying salient information to London, where ‘service sheets’ were made up. It is these latter documents which have survived.

These are large, heavy ledgers, similar to those used both by the Board of Trade and Lloyd’s (of London). Some entries of ‘good company men’, can give immense amounts of information and if more than one page is used these are cross referenced, mostly in red, but sometimes in the normal black ink. Shorter entries often reflect the company rejecting individuals, though almost as frequently it seems that it was the individuals’ choice not to remain with the company. Also, with past merchant shipping legislation making this mandatory in crew-lists and agreements, although officers were not included in this, the company also reported these internally for ratings. However, they also added another category of report of potential interest to genealogists - sobriety.

The engineers’ registers too appear to be largely complete, covering from 1845 until 1949 with two supplementary registers reaching 1957. These follow the same format as for seamen officers. However, it should be noted that these ledgers also contain details of artisans, such as boilermakers, plumbers, foremen coppersmiths and brass-finishers, as well as apprentices. There was even one apparently unusual case of a fireman being promoted to boilermaker.

Both from a genealogical and sociological viewpoint the ‘stewards’ registers are also an important body of documentation, though these are less complete and there are major problems with them. They cover years of joining from the early 1890s through to 1944. However, there are gaps between 1903 to 1906, 1916 to 1920, and 1940 to 1943. Also the indexes were not part of the registers themselves and apparently only two of these have survived: from the 1890s. So, looking for one individual can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless, if found the standard of information can again be very high. Also, it should also be noted that it was not just ‘stewards’ who were recorded in these registers. As well as a bewildering variety of stewards’ rates of the more readily identifiable sort, such as ‘general’ stewards and a small number of stewardesses, there were others dealing (separately) with linen, laundry and baggage. Some stewards were also entered as musicians - pianists and violinists are mentioned. And, many others were noted here. These included cooks, butchers, bakers (and their mates); officers’ servants (attached to individual departments such as engineering); waiters; storekeepers and writers.

There are also two registers from the ‘Deck’ department. Although seamen formed a much smaller element of crew than either engine-room staff, or those under the Purser, it is possible that much is missing. The first is entitled ‘Petty Officers’ and Seamen’s Register’, written up from men engaging on P&O vessels from 1921 to 1929. Although there are entries from as early as the 1890s, there are few of these. Curiously, it may be that keeping seamen’s ledgers was peculiar to the 1920s. There are a number of entries where because of accident or enemy action, earlier details of individuals’ time with the company are reported as either not known, or imprecise. As well as seamen, both A.B.s and those rated as Petty Officer (quartermasters, boatswains and baggage masters), there others are also recorded in this register who must have been rated as P.O.s by the company. There are the miscellaneous, such as ‘wireless watchers’ (more commonly rated as wireless operators, or later radio officers) and Hospital Attendants. However, there were also artisans as well - carpenters, shipwright joiners, joiners and plumbers.

The second ‘deck’ register records P.O.s for the ten year period from June 1939 to 1949. A card index system replaced these registers, but none of these are available, if indeed they are still in existence.

If there were any registers for firemen, trimmers, greasers and donkeymen then these have not apparently survived. However, it may have been that there was no particular reason for keeping such registers, at least of firemen and trimmers: other than for ‘disciplinary’ reasons.

The following give an idea of information for each type of register mentioned above:-