These pages contain a short history of the former Partnership of Macdonald, Hamilton and Co.of which the author was privileged to be a member in the Melbourne office from October 1954 to July 1960. Part of which has been used in a dissertation for the degree of Master of Arts in Maritime History at Exeter University.
It was formed at the behest of James Lyle Mackay, First Earl of Inchcape in 1915, and can trace its ancestorship to the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company, which was founded in 1842.
Macdonald, Hamilton and Company was universally known by employers and employees alike as “the Firm.” and later colloquially as 'Machams' It was an Australian based shipping agency, steeped in Australasian coastal and overseas shipping history, which occupied an important position among the local maritime companies. Macdonald, Hamilton’s ancestor companies, and ultimately itself, not only mirrored the growing pains of the new colony but were actively involved in its adolescence and early adulthood and in a sense both grew together.
The partnership will be referred to variously as 'the Firm', MH or Macdonald, Hamilton, it is also interesting to note that the 'comma' separating Macdonald from Hamilton appeared from the earliest documents, which this author has seen in the Guildhall Library in London, and was generally used. It was discontinued when MH became a ' Pty. Ltd.' company. Also on the headed paper the 'ampersand' was used instead of the word 'and' however - for some reason or other - problems occur when it has been used on this site so to avoid further complications 'and' will be used when written out in full.
Information on the earlier companies has been gleaned from various publications, which will be cited, details and copies of which have been made available to the author by Librarians in Australia as well as by former colleagues and friends. To all of whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude and grateful thanks and these are acknowledged as follows:.
Australia
and New Zealand
Grateful
thanks go to the following: Two of my fellow former junior clerks at
Macdonald, Hamilton and Co. firstly Peter Lucas, formerly in
Melbourne now of Sydney New South Wales, the Company’s penultimate accountant;
Bruce McBain of Melbourne, final accountant of the company when
wound up; Rob Henderson, semi-official historian of P and O Australia
- (semi-official inasmuch as he was not so appointed, but rescued a
considerable amount of P and O and Orient Lines photographs and company
material from certain destruction) a former Macdonald, Hamilton employee
based in Sydney. Other ex-members of Macdonald, Hamilton, Derek Tigwell,
north NSW, and John Hitches in Brisbane, Malcolm Longstaff in Sydney
and Ian Ingram, Melbourne who have given me considerable support,
through e-mails over the last three years or so, with information concerning
their own activities and responsibilities in the Firm.
The National Maritime Museum of New Zealand, for information on tugs; a special thank you to Jennifer Broomhead, Intellectual property and Copyright Librarian at the National Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, who has been of tremendous help (as well as some of her colleagues who have also given assistance where able) with information on photographs and shipping records; Janette Garrad, Heritage Collections at the State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane, Australia for information and documentation on early Australian shipping companies, and in particular Macdonald, Hamilton and Co. in Brisbane.
England
Stephen Rabson, the official Historian and Archivist of P and O, based
at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; The staff at the Guildhall
Library, London for their assistance; To my supervisor Dr. Roger Morriss,
of Exeter and Bristol Universities, and Dr. Mike Duffy, Head of Maritime
History at Exeter University.
According to a former Senior Partner, Neville Drake Pixley [later Sir], records had been sent to the Business Archives Centre in Sydney, which was attached to Sydney University, in about 1957. However this centre is now no longer (2006) in existence and these particular records would now appear to have been lost.
Records of MH relating to P and O and BI were eventually transferred to P and O Australia in 1962. Regrettably most of these Australian records appear to have been were destroyed, as a result of the Carnival Cruise Lines take over of Pand O Cruises in early 2003. A few of the records were saved, but mainly P and O and Orient Line not Macdonald, Hamilton.
Material, where possible, has been accessed and some of the references confirmed in the minutes books of AUSN at the Guildhall Library in London. Other material has been located in the Sir William Mackinnon Collection, at the London School for Oriental and Asian Studies. Further personal research is being undertaken during May and June 2006, in Australia.
The ancestor companies should be viewed in the order shown below.
The
Passenger Department, in Peninsular House, 311 Collins Street, Melbourne,
circa 1958