Described by his grandson, Sir Stephen Runciman as ‘a Geordie of Scots descent who ran away to sea at 11, was a master mariner by 21 and founded a shipping line’, Walter Runciman founded the South Shields Shipping Company, later the Moor Line and was Chairman of the company until his death in 1937. In 1933 he was enobled as Baron Runciman and was joined in the House of Lords four years later by his son also called Walter, then a minister in the National Government.