This vividly detailed poster was issued by Southern Railway to promote its storage facilities at Southampton Docks, a huge port for passenger ships as well as cargo and freight vessels since the mid-19th century. Painter and poster designer Harold Sandys Williamson trained at the Leeds School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools in London. He documented some of his subsequent experiences as a soldier in World War I in several paintings. After the war he became a commercial illustrator, producing posters for such British institutions as London Transport and London Underground, the General Post Office, and the Empire Marketing Board in addition to several private corporations. His commitment to artistic practice is evidenced by his role as headmaster of the Chelsea School of Art between 1930 and 1958, where he hired Henry Moore as head of the new sculpture department in 1932, among other talented artists. His compositions, like this one, typically reflect both the traditional styles and values of the era and an awareness of the bold lines and abstract forms of European modernism.