Mr Thomas Henderson, senior member of the firm of Henderson Bros., managing owners of the Anchor Line of Steamships, is a native of Fifeshire, but was educated in Glasgow. He entered, at an early age, the mercantile marine service as an apprentice, and rapidly rose through the different grades of the profession to the command of various sailing ships and steamers belonging to the port of Glasgow. In 1853 he was admitted a partner in the shipping firm of Handyside, & Co., which, five years afterwards, was changed to Handyside & Henderson. Some years later, on the retirement of the Messrs Handyside and the assumption of Mr John Henderson and other partners into the business, the firm became Henderson Brothers, under which designation the greater part of the steam shipping business now carried on by the Anchor Line steamships has been developed and extended. The fleet as now constituted consists of forty-five steamships of an aggregate measurement of over 124,000 tons, with an engine power of above 25,000 horses nominal. These vessels are employed severally in the Transatlantic, Indian, and Mediterranean services, in all of which they are well known and appreciated by the public as in all respects first-class, and second to no other competing line for safety, speed, comfort to passengers, and careful delivery of goods carried. One branch of the extensive services of the Anchor steamships, specially noteworthy as forming one of the modern “express” lines which have given such impetus to ocean travel, is the express service between Liverpool and New York, in which the magnificent steamships _City of Rome_ and _Austral_ are engaged. In connection with their head office in Glasgow, Messrs Henderson Bros. have established branch offices of their own in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Barrow-in-Furness, Queenstown, Londonderry, Dundee, New York, Boston, Chicago, Paris, Marseilles, and Palermo, at all of which the agency business of the several lines of steamers is attended to by their own employees. In addition to his responsible share in the concerns of the Anchor Line, Mr HENDERSON is a partner in the extensive shipbuilding and engineering works of D. & W. Henderson & Co., at Meadowside, Partick, and Finnieston Quay, Glasgow. The estimation in which Mr HENDERSON is held as a shipping and commercial authority may be inferred from the enumeration of important offices at the head of this note; most of which he has worthily occupied for many years. [Illustration: Very truly yours Thomas Henderson (signature) INK-PHOTO, SPRAGUE & C^o. LONDON.] PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. WILLIAM PEARCE. WILLIAM PEARCE, MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF THE INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS; MEMBER OF THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE, AND OF THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS AND SHIPBUILDERS IN SCOTLAND.