She spent most of her career with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, including the Second World War when she served for six years as a troop ship.

[4] Her scheduled liner route was between Tilbury in England and Brisbane in Queensland via the Straits of Gibraltar, Suez Canal, Bombay, Colombo, Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

[4] On 1 September 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland, Stratheden sailed from Tilbury for Australia via India and Ceylon as scheduled.

She went via Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, celebrated Christmas in the Indian Ocean, called at Bombay, and arrived at Colombo on New Year's Day 1940.

On her return voyage her ports of call included Malta on 27 February and Marseille two days later, and she reached Southampton in 6 March.

[4] On 30 March she left Southampton for Australia, sailed via the Mediterranean and Suez Canal as usual, and reached Brisbane on 13 May.

And France capitulated on 22 June, ceding her entire Channel and Atlantic coasts to Germany, which brought shipping to and from Southampton within easier range of enemy attack.

Stratheden diverted to Cape Town, where she joined Orient Line's RMS Orion and Pacific Steam's Reina del Pacifico to form Convoy BC C which sailed on 24 June 1940 for Freetown in Sierra Leone.

[11] There they joined three other UK merchant ships to form Convoy BC A, which the Royal Navy escorted to Liverpool, arriving on 16 July.

[13] Stratheden reached Bombay on 15 September 1940 and left a week later carrying 268 passengers and 418 troops with Convoy BM 1.

Stratheden spent most of the next two years moving troops between Britain, India, Ceylon and Egypt: sometimes in convoys but other times unescorted.

WS 7 left the Clyde on 24 March, reached Freetown on 4 April and then split into sections to continue to Cape Town and Suez.

She called at Port Sudan, Durban and Cape Town, celebrated Christmas 1941 in mid-Atlantic, reached Trinidad on New Year's Eve and Halifax on 5 January 1942.

She left Suez on 14 August 1942, called at Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Freetown and reached Liverpool on 26 September.

She sailed unescorted from Bombay to Cape Town, where she joined the troop ship Britannic to form Convoy CF 12 to Freetown.

By the time the two ships left Cape Town on 19 April, Stratheden was carrying 1,642 troops and 1,496 prisoners of war.

[10] On 17 October 1943 Stratheden left Port Said for the Clyde in Convoy MKF 25, whose larger troop ships included Britannic, Stirling Castle, the "Strath" liner Strathaird and the Italian Saturnia.

As the convoy sailed west, more troop ships joined it from Algiers including Orion and the "Strath" liner Strathmore.

[38] From Alexandria Stratheden continued along the Egyptian coast to Port Said, then through the Suez Canal to Aden, where on 14 March she joined Convoy AB 34A to Bombay.

In Port Said she joined Convoy MKF 30, whose largest troop ship was Capetown Castle and which also included the "Strath" liner Strathnaver.

KMF 31 took Stratheden as far as Port Said,[41] from where she, Strathmore and several other troop ships continued unescorted through the Suez Canal and Red Sea.

KMF 40 took her as far as Gibraltar,[48] from there she continued unescorted through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Indian Ocean, reaching Bombay on 12 March.

After a fortnight in port Stratheden left Bombay on 27 March, sailing unescorted back through the Suez Canal to Gibraltar, where she joined MKF 42.

Stratheden sailed unescorted through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Indian Ocean, reaching Bombay on 30 May.

Stratheden had sailed 422,000 nautical miles (782,000 km) and carried 150,000 armed service personnel without serious incident.

[53] P&O controlled Orient Line, which shared many of the same troop ship duties and suffered similarly heavy losses.

[4] On 13 March 1955 in the Mediterranean Stratheden went to the aid of the Greek trawler Iason, which was foundering in a gale with heavy sea and swell 70 nautical miles (130 km) east of Cape Spartivento.

Returning to Stratheden the boat was swamped by a large wave about 200 yards off the liner's port quarter and capsized.

[4] On 23 December 1963 Stratheden provided medical facilities for survivors from the Greek-operated cruise ship Lakonia, which had been abandoned after catching fire 290 km (160 nautical miles) north of Madeira.

[4] Lakonia was formerly the Dutch liner and troop ship Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, which had sailed with Stratheden in convoys in 1941 and 1944.