Absolute Integrity; The Story of Royal Insurance 1845-1995

Westmont, IL: Cambridge Business Publishing, 1995. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The format is approximately 9 inches by 11.25 inches. 287, [1] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (many in color). Appendix I-IV, Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Peter Pugh is a British author. He was educated at Oundle and Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read history. After graduating he held several marketing positions with such companies as Gillette Industries. In 1984 he used his knowledge of the British business scene to begin writing corporate histories. He has written and is writing books on Royal Insurance, Carless, Ivory and Sime, Blue Circle, Asda, Harrisons and Crosfield, SD Scicon, George Williamson and Co., Walter Alexander, WAPCO, Mecca, PFG Hodgson Kenyon, The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, the Royal Bath, Bournemouth, and the Belfry. He also wrote Is Guinness Good for You?, a book on the Guinness scandal, and on the City called City Slickers Handbook. On 11 March 1845, a group of prominent Liverpool merchants and businessmen formed a joint stock fire and life association called Royal; within nine days they were advertising an offer to subscribe. It was constituted under a deed of settlement dated 31 May 1845. The business was intended to be almost entirely fire insurance for although the Royal was authorized to accept life assurance, that very much took second place. The first Chairman was Josias Booker, a plantation owner and founder of Booker Brothers. Other directors included Charles Turner (MP), Chairman of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board; John Bramley-Moore, merchant and future Lord Mayor of Liverpool; Thomas Horsfall, first chairman of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and later Mayor and MP; and Thomas Booth, chairman of N Waterhouse & Sons, leading cotton brokers. The first general manager was recruited from Royal Exchange Assurance, Percy Matthew Dove, a qualified actuary. He led the Company until his death in 1868 and, with the support of the directors, was responsible for the Royal's early rapid growth. In September 1845 agents were appointed in the nearby towns and throughout Lancashire the following month. In November, agents were appointed in Glasgow and London and these were followed in succeeding months by the first overseas agents, in India, South America and the Far East. Within a year, the Royal had 45 agents. The first step in establishing what was to become Royal's most important market came in 1851 with the formation of a New York board; by 1853, Royal had been established in ten U.S. cities. The early years of the twentieth century saw two acquisitions which took Royal into new product areas. The British Engine and Boiler Co., founded in 1878, was acquired in 1912 and within the Royal it developed into one of the leading engineering insurers in the world. More substantial was the entry into marine insurance. Increased risks in the marine market led to many of the insurers being acquired by the larger composites and the Royal bought British & Foreign Marine in 1909. Founded in Liverpool in 1863, it had a network of overseas agents and by the opening of the twentieth century was one of Britain's two largest marine insurers. This was followed by the purchase of the Liverpool and London Globe Insurance, a major Liverpool fire office, in 1919.