CURRIE, SIR DONALD (1825-1909), British shipowner, was born at Greenock on Sept. 17, 1825. By a fortunate chance he attracted the notice of the chief partner in the newly-started Cunard steamship line, who found him a post in that company. In 1849 the Cunard company started a service between Havre and Liverpool to connect with their trans-Atlantic service. Currie was appointed Cunard agent at Havre and Paris, and secured for his firm a large share of the freight traffic between France and the United States. About 1856 he returned to Liverpool, where till 1862 he held an important position at the Cunard company's head quarters. In 1862 he established the Castle line of sailing-ships be tween Liverpool and Calcutta. In 1864 Currie found it profitable to substitute London for Liverpool as the home port of his vessels, and himself settled in London. In 1872 he started the Castle Line of steamers between England and South Africa, which after 1876 divided the South African mail contract with the older Union Line, and was finally amalgamated with the latter under the title Union Castle Line in 1900. Currie's intimate knowledge of South African conditions caused him to be entrusted by the home Gov ernment with the negotiations in the dispute concerning the own ership of the Kimberly diamond-fields. He introduced the two Transvaal deputations which came to England in 1877 and 1878 to protest against annexation, and though his suggestions for a settlement were disregarded by the Government of the day, the terms on which the Transvaal was subsequently restored to the Boers agreed, in essentials, with those he had advised. Entering politics, he was returned to parliament in 188o as Liberal member for Perthshire, but, though a strong personal friend of Gladstone, he disagreed with him on the Home Rule question, and from 1885 to 1900 represented West Perthshire as a Unionist. In 1881 he was knighted, and in 1897 was created G.C.M.G. He died at Sidmouth on April 13, 1909.