The Briton was built in 1897 and was a Union Steam Ship Company (later Union-Castle Line) passenger ship. Many of her voyages, both in peacetime and wartime, were between Great Britain and South Africa, and she served as a troopship during both the Boer War and the First World War.

This postcard photograph may date from around 1910.

See also the "Roll of men in No. 14 Mess on board H.M.T. Briton", which witnesses her service in repatriating soldiers to New Zealand at the end of the Great War.