The house flag of House flag, Elder Dempster Lines, Liverpool. A white swallow-tailed burgee with a red cross. There is a gold crown in the centre. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. A rope and toggle is attached.

Elder Dempster’s roots date back to the mid-nineteenth century, with the founding of the African Steam Ship Company Limited in 1852 and the British and African Steam Navigation Company in 1868. John Dempster and Alexander Elder of Glasgow went into business as the Liverpool agents of the British and African Steam Navigation Company. The two companies, which both ran mail services to West Africa, agreed to divide their sailings. In 1864 the African Steam Ship Company took over the Dominion Line and Beaver line to begin operating Liverpool-Canada services. Alfred Jones, a competing agent in Liverpool in the West African service, became a partner in Elder Dempster in 1879 and in 1890 he purchased a controlling interest in the African Steam Ship Company. The British and African Steam Navigation Company was taken over in 1900, but this was followed by the death of Jones and the purchase of Elder Dempster (which operated 109 ships at this point) by the Royal Mail Group. During the First World War, the company lost 42 ships at sea. Following this and fierce competition with other West African shipping lines, the Royal Mail Group was reconstructed in 1932, which led to the reformation of the Elder Dempster Line, this time under the management of the Ocean Steam Ship Company Limited. World War II led to loss of another 41 ships. The company managed to acquire more shipping lines in the decades ahead: the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company in 1951 and the Guinea Gulf Line in 1965, among others. It was during that same year that the ownership of Elder Dempster fully passed to the Ocean Steam Ship Company which operated the Blue Funnel Line. The company slowly deteriorated as the West African passenger service halted in 1974 and the company was finally sold to French owners (Delmas-Vieljeux) in 1989. (Research: Rebecca Hernandez)