To Southampton people she was, and still remains to this day, simply known as the "Mary'', a Cunarder on the most grandest of scale, a greyhound of the seas that served her country valiantly in both times of peace and war.

Now amazing photographs, including some rare early colour images, never seen publicly before have been revealed by shipping historian, Geoff Creese who still remembers vividly his 1960 visit to Southampton Docks where he saw Queen Mary leaving for one of her regular transatlantic crossings to New York.

"It was about a month before I was due to start my National Service and I recall borrowing the family car, a 1937 Morris 8, which my father had bought from new for £122.10s (£122.50), and made my way down to Southampton,'' said 68-year-old Geoff from Warwickshire and who still owns the vehicle.

"I was living in Leicester at the time and I guess it took me about four hours to drive to Southampton. I bought a ticket for a boat trip round the harbour and luckily saw Queen Mary about to set sail.

"My camera was a Kodak Retinette I and so I snapped away and managed to catch Queen Mary as she manoeuvred out of her berth at the start of her voyage.'' Cunard's Queen Mary, arguably the best loved of all Southampton liners, ended her days at sea in 1967 when she was sold to Long Beach, California, where she is still in retirement as a hotel, conference centre and tourist attraction.

Ordered from John Brown's Clydebank yard, the Mary became a pawn in the politics of the early 1930s. Here construction was held up for 18 months in the slump.

Her maiden voyage from Southampton was in May, 1936, and after a few teething troubles, the liner soon recaptured the covetted Blue Riband.

A troopship during the Second World War the Mary relied on speed to outrun German U-boats that prowled the Atlantic waiting to ambush Allied convoys.

When peace returned the Mary joined her sister ship, Queen Elizabeth in what was to be the greatest North Atlantic partnership the maritime world had ever seen.