RMS Empress of France was an ocean liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 built in 1928 by John Brown

John Brown & Company

John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...

 at Clydebank

Clydebank

Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 for the Canadian Pacific Steamships and launched as the SS Duchess of Bedford in 1928. She was renamed Empress of France in 1947.

Duchess

The Duchess of Bedford was one of the several "sturdy Canadian Pacific liners which were known as "Drunken Duchesses" for their lively performance in heavy seas." She was built as a sister ship to SS Duchess of York

SS Duchess of York

SS Duchess of York was a 20,021 ton ocean liner operated by the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. Built in 1928 in Clydebank by the shipbuilders John Brown & Company, she was originally intended to be named SS Duchess of Cornwall...

, SS Duchess of Richmond and SS Duchess of Atholl.

Among the Duchess' better-known passengers in 1931 was Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England

Governor of the Bank of England

The Governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the Bank, with the incumbent grooming his or her successor...

, who was en route from Canada to England when he received word the United Kingdom had permanently abandoned the gold standard.

The writer Elspeth Huxley

Elspeth Huxley

Elspeth Joscelin Huxley CBE was a polymath, writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate, environmentalist, farmer, and government advisor. She wrote 30 books; but she is best known for her lyrical books The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard which were based on her experiences growing up...

 worked on her biography of Lord Delamere

Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere

Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere KCMG , styled The Honourable from birth until 1887, was a British peer. He was one of the first and most influential British settlers in Kenya....

 while crossing the Atlantic in 1933.

Troopship

At the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Duchess of Bedford was commandeered by the Admiralty to bring civil and military officials from England to India.

The Duchess was amongst the ships which evacuated Singapore in 1941. The Duchess transported 1955 men of the 18th Infantry Division to Singapore before it fell, departing Bombay on January 19, 1942 and arriving ten days later. The Duchess was joined by an "empress" sister ship in this convoy duty. The troopship SS Empress of Japan

RMS Empress of Japan (1930)

RMS Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929-1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships . This ship -- the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan -- regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route...

 carried 1981 men of the 18th Division. The convoy departed with evacuees on January 30.

Her war service included support for the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.

Empress

She was refitted in 1947, then renamed in that same year as the Empress of France. Preliminary plans to re-name the ship Empress of India were laid aside when India's independence was declared in August 1947.

The ship was taken out of service in 1960; and she was broken up at Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

 in late December of the same year.

See also

• CP Ships
  CP Ships
  CP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...
  
  
• List of ocean liners
• List of ships in British Columbia