Wilson retained its livery with the group pennant above, including after 1973. Sources vary in the stops after JRE, the red ball’s size and the white flag’s shape. The usual tapered swallowtail contrasts with the museum’s rectangular swallowtail. Dignan’s Sampson-derived illustration omits the group pennant, although Sampson includes it; another image located by Mertens shows equal long pennants, stopped initials and a small ball. The museum’s c.1951 measurements are 660.4 × 1778 mm for the pennant and 1168.4 × 1828.8 mm for the houseflag. Rosanoski’s separate comment gives the upper hoist as 600 mm, summarising roughly 1:3 for the group pennant and 2:3 for the houseflag, with the former’s hoist about half the latter’s. An Aberdeen measured drawing records 8 ft × 4 ft 2 in.
An unidentified postcard collection labels this Wilson Line and shows its funnel. Two approximately 1:3 pennants touch at their hoists: plain dark blue above, white with a central red disc below. Rosanoski suggests a date around the 1916 takeover, with lettering probably omitted from the upper Ellerman pennant. The source also illustrates this livery as W444.
Thomas Wilson, Sons was acquired in 1916 and renamed Ellerman’s Wilson Line in 1917, although Phil Nelson gives 1919 for the acquisition. Operations remained largely separate. All but the North Sea services entered Ellerman City Liners in 1973; competition and declining trade led to the sale of the remaining ships by 1978.
Wilson held 9% of Associated Humber Lines in February 1957 and joined the England-Sverige Linien consortium formed in the mid-1960s. Nearly all its ship names ended in o.
UK, Hull.
Keep the explicit scope label independent; no alias or company identity is inferred.