RELATIVES of Cunard’s founder have gathered to remember him and his legacy as Southampton prepares to mark the shipping company’s 175th anniversary.

Descendants of Sir Samuel Cunard, along with Cunard chairman David Dingle, gathered at his grave to mark the 150th anniversary of his death.

This comes as the city prepares to welcome the shipping line’s fleet of three ships this Sunday. Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria will be at the historic waterfront before setting off in the afternoon down Southampton Water and through the Solent in convoy.

Daily Echo: Samuel Cunard. 

Ahead of this, tributes were paid at Sir Samuel’s final resting place at Brompton Cemetery in London, which has been refurbished specially in line with the company’s milestone anniversary.

Attendees, pictured below, included four of Sir Samuel’s great-great-grandchildren – Tom Charrington, Giles Charrington, Antonia Young and Teresa Tildon – and their mother, his great-grandchild Barbara Cunard, all descendants of one of his nine children.

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Canadian Sir Samuel founded Cunard – which has its home port in Southampton – in 1839 and it was originally known as the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.

To do so he left his home in Nova Scotia, where he was already a prosperous businessman, and settled in London.

Laying a wreath, Mr Dingle, chief executive of Cunard’s parent company Carnival UK, described Sir Samuel as one of the “great Victorian entrepreneurs” who had created “a fast, reliable and safe steamship service linking the Old World and the New”.

“Like Brunel, Stephenson, Wedgwood and Bazalgette, what he created has had an incalculable impact on the lives of millions,” he added.

“The success of Samuel Cunard in establishing the first regular steamship service across the Atlantic was not only of monumental significance at the time, but it has reverberated down the years.”

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Tom Charrington said his ancestor was a “truly great man” and told how, aged ten, he witnessed a disaster when a frigate went aground in a storm and 240 people drowned.

“Partly because of that, safety was always his priority with his ships, rather than speed,” he said.

“He learned from an early age about how to make money, trading as a small boy down in the harbour at cargo auctions and taking his profits back in a sock he had knitted himself while driving their cows up to his father’s pasture.

“His motto was ‘By Perseverance’ and he was devoid of bombast and bravado, of self-promotion and conceit.”

Southampton will kick off a year of celebrations when world famous shipping line,Cunard marks the start of its 175th anniversary this weekend.

The first major event is on Sunday (May 3) when the Cunard fleet of Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth will sail into Southampton together and depart later that day in formation.

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