50 years ago this evening: Monday 18 September 1967

[Michael Gallagher]

Text is © Michael Gallagher 2017 and no part of it may be re-used without permission.

On the evening of Monday 18 September 1967 Cunard Chairman Sir Basil Smallpeice and his Deputy, Ronald Senior, met to agree the final choice of name for the New Cunarder in Cunard’s London offices.

Sir Basil and took three names (decided in May 1967) from a safe where they had been since May: Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne. Elizabeth had joined the list last after the decision to retire the Queen Elizabeth had been made.

When the choice was made, a message was sent by scrambler telephone to The Queen through her private secretary, Sir Michael Adeane, in Balmoral.

They were the only four to know the name.

A sealed envelope containing the name was dispatched to the New York office – it was to be opened if there were any problems with the live launch transmission on the day.

[Lynda Bradford]

Although it was unfortunate that the Queen Elizabeth was retired, I cannot think of a better ship to have taken the name than QE2.