Donald Currie
Sir Donald Currie GCMG was a British shipowner.
He was born at Greenock onSeptember 1825. He was the third son of ten children of James Currie and Elizabeth , daughter of Donald Martin, all of Greenock. His parents moved to Belfast in 1826, and Currie was sent at seven to the Belfast Academy, and subsequently to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution at both schools he distinguished himself. As a boy he interested himself in the sea and shipping, and at fourteen entered the shipping office of a relative in Greenock. After four years there, he joined in 1844 the Cunard Steamship Company, Liverpool, owners of the only regular line of steamers sailing between Europe and America, which numbered no more than three the Caledonia, the Arcadia, and the Britannia, all of small tonnage. Currie became head of the companys cargo department. In 1849, in order to take advantage of the abolition of the navigation laws, the company sent him to establish branch houses at Havre and Paris, and in a short time they had a steamer running between
Source: Wikipedia