From the Mirror archives September 27, 1938

The 83,000-ton new Cunard luxury ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth is pulled by a tug after her launch at John Brown’s shipyard on the River Clyde – facing a much different role than what she was built for. She entered service in February 1940 as a troopship during World War Two and didn’t make her first voyage as a passenger liner until 1946. The largest passenger liner ever built, a title she held for 56 years, she was named in honour of the then Queen Consort to King George VI.