Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 11th November 2025

Time: 7pm

Venue: Room 1.09, Park Building, King Henry I St, Portsmouth, PO1 2BZ

Description: William Schaw Lindsay was born in Ayr in 1815. He was orphaned by the age of ten, ran away to sea aged sixteen and within nine years was a captain of an oceangoing merchant ship. He then became a shipbroker and shipowner. By the mid-1850s he owned 22 ships and was chartering 700 a year. His ships were involved in the Crimean War, in emigration to Australia and Canada, and in the American Civil War. He met many dignitaries including Brunel, Dickens, Disraeli, Nightingale and Lincoln and visited Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in 1854. His diaries are housed in the National Maritime Museum. Bill Lindsay worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a marketing director for 35 years. On retirement he pursued researching his family tree and discovered his forefather. He wrote his great-great-grandfather's biography as a result of transcribing his diaries which took six years. Bill is a member of various maritime societies and is editor of the online magazine of the Society for Nautical Research.

How to book: No need to book, just turn up

Price: £4

Email: portsmouthhistorybranch@gmail.com

Organiser: Kate

Lecturer: Bill Lindsay

Region: South-East England

Branch: Portsmouth