TS Queen Mary gets royal visit to mark anniversary
HELENSBURGH and Lomond’s MSP met with the Princess Royal to mark the 90th anniversary of an iconic ship.
The Denny-built steamer TS Queen Mary is being restored on the Clyde and is marking the end of a year-long celebration of its birthday.
Her Royal Highness Princess Anne was in Glasgow as Royal Patron of the Queen Mary and was presented with a framed picture of the vessel from 1956.
It was given to her by Knoxland Primary pupil Joe McGroarty, aged 10, amongst supporters, volunteers and fund-raisers at the reception for the Queen Mary.
The Princess Royal was getting an update on the restoration works that she first announced two years ago.
The campaign for the ship, berthed at Govan, has so far raised more than £5million through the charity, Friends of TS Queen Mary. It is half of the anticipated cost to make the vessel fit to sail again.
It is hoped the relaunch will eventually connect to Rothesay and Dunoon, which were destinations in the ship’s heyday.
Built in Dumbarton in 1933, it was towed back from London in 2015.
At one time, the TS Queen Mary carried 13,000 passengers each week and was known as “Britain’s Finest Pleasure Steamer”.
It also has historic links with the royal family, having carried King George V, Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother, as well as then Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
Other famous passengers included US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Viscount Montgomery
of Alamein and music hall legend Sir Harry Lauder.
Iain Sim, chairman of the Friends of TS Queen Mary said: “We are delighted to welcome back to Glasgow our Royal Patron HRH The Princess Royal. Our ongoing endeavour to ensure TS Queen Mary sails again on the Clyde continues to gather pace with some significant progress in the last year.
“We feel very privileged to have HRH The Princess Royal as our Royal Patron celebrating, as it does the important link with the Royal Family which the ship is renowned for.”
MSP Jackie Baillie, who last met Princess Anne when she awarded her Dame Commander of the British Empire at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in January, has long backed the restoration of the vessel.
She said: “The TS Queen Mary, as well as having historic links with the Royal Family, has an unbreakable bond with Dumbarton.
“She was built at the legendary William Denny shipyard and is one of the finest examples of her class, as well as a testament to the craftsmanship and engineering skill, for which the tradesmen of Dumbarton were known across the globe.
“I will be delighted when she is once again sailing the Firth of Clyde as a lasting example of the legacy of Dumbarton shipbuilding.”