Photograph of Thomas Stewart Gordon at dinner with Prime Minister Billy Hughes and other dignitaries
Subject or historical figure
Sir Thomas Stewart Gordon
(Australian, 1882 - 1949)
Datec 1940
Object numberANMS1542[026]
NamePhotograph
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 165 × 219 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum gift of Wendy Prettejohn
DescriptionFrom the early 1900s Thomas Gordon Stewart's career in business was very much focused in shipping and maritime industries. The highlight of his career was in World War II when Gordon was a member of the Shipping Control Board and representative in Australia of the British Ministry of Shipping (War Transport). He became chairman of the Allied Consultative Shipping Council in May 1942 and was later appointed director of shipping, responsible for all shipping in Australian waters during the war.
This series of family photographs allows for a unique insight into Gordon’s family life, and further affirms his keen interest in national politics, one image showing Gordon dining with Prime Minister Billy Hughes and other dignitaries.
HistorySir Thomas Gordon was an Australian shipping magnate. The son of a successful farmer, he was born in Ardrossan, South Australia, in 1882. At the age of 18, Tom – as friends knew him – began work in the shipping industry. Joining Sydney-based Birt & Co. in 1902, he became the firm’s New Zealand representative in Wellington over 1908–11. He then returned to Sydney as the company’s shipping manager.
In February 1917, Australian Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes created the Commonwealth Shipping Control Board, comprising representatives of many major shipowners. It was led by Sir Owen Cox, managing director of Birt & Co. Now aged 35, Tom Gordon was appointed to the Board’s Oversea Central Committee, overseeing the allocation of international cargo spaces.
After the war, Tom’s career and fortune both swelled. In 1930 he took over from Cox as the head of Birt & Co. Under Tom’s leadership, Birt & Co. maintained wharves in Sydney and Brisbane, managing seaborne trade between Australia and Britain, Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. By the late 1930s the firm was the largest shipping enterprise in Australia, with considerable international connections.
In 1937, Tom and his wife Victoria embarked an 8-month around-the-world voyage. Departing aboard the Union Steam Ship Company’s TSS AWATEA, they visited Britain, Sweden, America and Asia, before returning on the Osaka Shosen Kaisha Line’s MS CANBERRA MARU. The full extent of Tom’s personal, commercial, political and imperial connections became apparent when he was knighted by King George VI in 1938. Amongst Sir Thomas Gordon’s effects is a typed series of highlights from the congratulatory letters and telegrams he received, which runs to 78 pages.
When hostilities again commenced in 1939, Sir Thomas was appointed the Australian representative for Britain’s Ministry of Shipping (subsequently the Ministry of War Transport). At home, he joined the re-formed Australian Shipping Control Board and in 1942 became the nation’s Director of Shipping. With war now reaching the Pacific, his focus extended from liaison with the American War Shipping Administration to waterside industrial relations and the welfare of merchant mariners. So important was this coordination task to the war effort – and to returning Australia to the peace that followed in 1945 – that he only stepped down in 1947.
Sir Thomas Gordon retired in 1948 and died in 1949.SignificanceThis is part of a collection of memorabilia of some significant documents including telegrams sent during wartime, letters to and from British wartime leaders such as Winston Churchill, as well as rare photographs. It is part of the suite of memorabilia of this significant 20th century Australian shipping and trade businessman and administrator who was knighted for his work, Sir Thomas Stewart Gordon.
