The man whose work helped to transform Portsmouth into a leading ferry port has been remembered
The man whose work helped to transform Portsmouth into a leading ferry port has been remembered - with hopes that his strong legacy for the city will continue.
Southsea man Ian Carruthers was the UK Managing Director of Brittany Ferries, and his fight and enthusiasm to help to grow the company in its infancy continues to have a lasting impact today.
Ian, 79, died peacefully in the Rowans Hospice on October 9 2025 after a short illness, but at a remembrance event at the Royal Maritime Club friends and family paid tribute to the man whose efforts transformed Portsmouth from being predominantly only Royal Navy port, to a combined naval and commercial port.
Brittany Ferries begun its life as a ferry company created by French farmers wanting to export their cauliflowers and artichokes to the UK via Plymouth.
Ian joined the fledgling Brittany Ferries in 1976 from the Merchant Navy as Portsmouth operations and freight manager and was immediately involved in the controversial setting up of the first ferry service to operate out of Portsmouth International Port to the Brittany port of St Malo.
The company had to overcome strong and sometime violent demonstrations by Southampton ferry port dockers, who saw the new service as a threat to their jobs.
His friend and former colleague Paul Burns told The News their efforts to succeed in Portsmouth were “resisted by all of the powerful shipping interests”.
He said: “It was resisted by the dockers and the harbour police, by everybody involved in the Southampton industry of shipping. (They) never wanted Portsmouth to exist because the Southampton shipping operators have to go up the Solent at five knots and down the Solent at five knots, here we are straight into the sea.
”The economics stopped Portsmouth developing probably for centuries because of the power of Southampton (but) we were determined we were going to do it.”
He added that at the time a group of Southampton dockers targeted the pair, including setting Mr Burns’ car alight “to try to stop us”.
“But Ian was prepared to hang in and I was prepared to hang in, and together we managed to open the port of Portsmouth which last year made a profit of £9.6million pounds. So someone, somewhere should be saying thank you.”
Once the dispute was settled, the service quickly became a major success with Brittany Ferries becoming one of the port’s earliest customers, later expanding to include routes to Caen in 1986 and it remains one of the port’s most important customers today.
When both Plymouth and Portsmouth routes had developed into successful car and passenger ferries, Ian became managing director of the whole company.
As Brittany Ferries grew, so did the port. He was energetically involved with the French parent company in setting up and quickly expanding new ferry services to Spain and Ireland using Portsmouth, Plymouth, Santander and Cork and further services to France using the Normandy port of Caen-Ouistreham. He was also responsible for developing major motoring-based touring and Gite holiday programmes.
It was during Ian’s leadership in the UK that Brittany Ferries became the leading ferry operator on the Western Channel, a position it still holds today, having seen off all rival operators such as P&O Ferries, who tried to compete.
After he retired from Brittany Ferries in 2001, Ian became a non-executive director of Wightlink. He was also a Governor and Chairman of the Finance Committee at Portsmouth Grammar School and a Trustee of the city’s Royal Maritime Club.
Ian, originally from Scotland, was also a Trustee of the Sail Training Association which he helped to transform into what is now the youth development and outdoor learning charity Tall Ships Youth Trust.
Friend and former colleague Toby Oliver said that Ian was “a lovely man”, adding; “throughout his career, Ian was known for his forthright and energetic management style. He was also a brilliant and very amusing raconteur.”
He leaves a wife, and two sons from his first marriage.
Ian Carruthers (1945–2025)