A cosmopolite Božo Banac, one of the wealthiest citizens of Dubrovnik between the two World Wars and a descendant of the prominent mariner family of Natalino Banac, was born in 1883 in Dubrovnik. From 1902 onwards he was educated in Glasgow and then lived in London. Representative and co-owner of the company Atlantska plovidba Ivo Račić, in 1924 he started Jugoslavensko-amerikanska plovidba, in 1928 founded Jugoslavenski Lloyd and as the first foreign ship-owner, became a member of the governing board of the London company Lloyd's Register of Shipping. After the First World War and during Ivan Meštrović's work on the mausoleum of Banac's father-in-law Ivo Račić in Cavtat, where Banac’s first early-deceased wife was buried, Banac and the big Croatian artist began their long friendship.