SEALINK-HOLYHEAD
Justin Merrigan
Anglia
The Anglia alongside the Admiralty Pier ay Holyhead. © Charles Brinsley Sheridan
The Anglia alongside the Admiralty Pier ay Holyhead. © Charles Brinsley Sheridan
On 27 November 1920 the City of Dublin Steam Packet's Ulster sailed from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) with the mail for the last time, and the Munster from Holyhead. For seventy years the Irish company had the honour of holding the mail contract but now, having suffered badly through losses sustained during the war, the contract passed to the London & North Western Railway and on the following day the first of their four new mail steamers, the Anglia, sailed from Holyhead with the mail.
On 1 January 1923 the LNWR was absorbed by the London Midland & Scottish Railway. With traffic down, due in no small part to the political situation in Ireland, cutbacks were quickly made. The Day Express ceased and with no justification for four front line ships the Anglia was withdrawn. The ship was removed to Barrow for what would become a prolonged lay-up. Amazingly this rarely used ship was sold for scrap in her 15th year, being broken up at Troon in 1935.