Sir Adrian Swire, who died last week aged 86, was a committed shipping man who oversaw the Swire group's diversification into tankers, bulkers, cruiseships and offshore, according to the company.
The patriarch was chairman of containership unit China Navigation Co (CNCo) from 1968 to 1988, seeing it through the switch to containerisation.
He first started work for CNCo in 1961 after returning from his initial group postings in Asia, according to Rob Jennings, head of archives at John Swire & Sons.
