Conway Gallery

Robert Livingston and George Steel traded as managers and shipbrokers under the title of G. Steel & Co. The partnership was dissolved  in April 1889 with George carrying on trading as G. Steel & Co. In the same year Robert Livingston and Leonard Richard Conner went into partnership as Livingston, Conner & Co. R. Livingston & Co., and L.R. Conner & Co., were founded in 1899 with  offices at Church Street, West Hartlepool with the partnership of Livingston, Conner & Co., officially dissolved in July 1900. L.R. Conner & Co. ceased trading in 1916.

Family History:

Leonard Richard Conner was born in c1842 at Greenwich. He married Sarah in 1865 and, by 1881, was living at Stranton with his wife & six children. By the following decade the family were living in Clifton Avenue, West Hartlepool. He died at Hartlepool on 25 July 1918. In his will he left £63, 792.

Christopher Furness was born at New Stranton, West Hartlepool, in 1852, the youngest of seven children. He became a very astute businessman, and by the age of eighteen was playing a major role in his older brother Thomas’ wholesale grocery business, being made partner in 1872.

In 1882 the two brothers decided to go their separate ways, allowing Thomas to concentrate on the grocery business, while Christopher took over the ownership and management of the four steamships their company was then operating.

This was the beginning of what would eventually become the huge Furness Withy & Co. Ltd. empire. As many books have been written detailing the history of this company, its ships and its many subsidiaries, this section will only feature those ships with direct Hartlepool connections.

Some of the ships that were not built at Hartlepool but owned by Furness are listed below as 'a general history'

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.