Arthur Anderson 1792 - 1868

1808 - joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer. 1810 - became a midshipman, serving as a captain's clerk. 1815 - employed by Brodie Willcox, shipping broker, as a clerk. 1822 - became a partner in the company. 1825 - the firm of Willcox and Anderson first went into shipowning and traded to the Iberian peninsula, first with sailing ships, then chartered steamers. 1835 - along with Willcox and Dublin ship owner, Captain Richard Bourne, issued the first prospectus of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company. 1837 - set up the Shetland Fishery Company, reviving the market for Shetland dried fish in Spain. 1847-1852 - served as a radical Liberal MP for the Orkney and Shetland constituency. 1849 - supported the abolition of the Navigation Acts. 1853 - problems with the supply of coal to P.&O.'s home port of Southampton led Anderson to establish a steam colliery company, but its ships were requisitioned by the government during the Crimean War. 1862 - founded the Anderson Educational Institute in Lewick which eventually became known as the Anderson High School..