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Quill-Driving: British Life-insurance Clerks and Occupational Mobility, 1800–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Timothy Alborn
Timothy Alborn
Affiliation:
TIMOTHY ALBORN is associate professor of history at Lehman College at the City University of New York.
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Abstract

For the clerks who worked in British life-insurance companies during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occupational mobility was both an opportunity that motivated effort and a generator of wide disparities in pay and status. Ambitious clerks learned math in the hope of becoming actuaries. By the end of the nineteenth century, this pattern had changed, owing to the rise of branch networks and accompanying bottle-necks in the promotion process. Insurance companies tried to divert clerks’ ambition by offering them opportunities to engage in sports and other leisure activities, and by enhancing their financial security through staff pension schemes. Although these strategies only succeeded in retaining around half of all entering clerks for more than a few years, the activities added meaning to the lives of those clerks who stayed on and made vital contributions to the rapid growth of one of Britain's most important financial services.

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Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , Spring 2008 , pp. 31 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2008

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References

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3 Between 1870 and 1914, sums insured in Britain tripled, from €293 million to €870 million; this accounted for €29 million in premium income in 1914: Supple, Royal Exchange Assurance, 285, 220.

4 Only six British life offices in existence after 1800 formed before 1790 (the Amicable, Royal Exchange, Equitable, Sun, Union, and London Assurance), and the latter three sold only fire and marine insurance up to 1809.

5 Equitable Life directors’ report, 1825, cited in Ogborn, Maurice Edward, Equitable Assurances: The Story of Life Assurance in the Experience of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, 1762-1962 (London, 1962), 183Google Scholar. For nineteenth-century American examples of this form of marketing, see Murphy, Sharon Ann, “Security in an Uncertain World: Life Insurance and the Emergence of Modern America” (Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 2005), 270–73Google Scholar.

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7 Many of the best sources for insurance clerks do not distinguish the departments clerks worked for, and, in many cases, the forms of activity or company policies similarly lumped all clerks together. As discussed below, the fact that life clerks would become a minority in all but specialist life offices by the end of the nineteenth century had an important impact on their work experience.

8 The two most recent histories of Anglo-American insurance that cover the period up to 1870 only mention clerks in passing: see Pearson, Robin, Insuring the Industrial Revolution: Fire Insurance in Great Britain, 1700-1850 (Aldershot, U.K., 2004)Google Scholar; and Murphy, “Security in an Uncertain World.”

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20 London Times, 1 Dec. 1841. On bank clerks, see Boot, H. M., “Salaries and Career Earnings in the Bank of Scotland, 1730-1880,” Economic History Review 44, no. 4 (1991): 629–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on other clerical wages, see Anderson, Victorian Clerks, 15-16, 20-21, 25.

21 Atlas board minutes, 7 Mar. 1809, 16,170/1, GL; Alliance board minutes, 2 May 1827, 12,162/1, GL; Standard Life private minutes, 22 Sept. 1853, A1/3/2, SL; Caledonian Insurance Company board minutes, 13 Nov. 1878,16,184/7, GL.

22 National Provident Institution salary returns, 20,293, GL; Provident Life Institution, notes on the company's history, 103, 14,311 GL; Clerical Medical board minutes, vol. 22, 4 Aug. 1875, Acc.2006/063, CM.

23 Clerical Medical salary books, Acc.2005/022, CM.

24 Supple, Royal Exchange Assurance, 319, 379; H. M. Boot, “Real Incomes of the British Middle Class, 1760-1850: The Experience of Clerks at the East India Company,” Economic History Review 52, no. 4 (1999): 654; Standard Life, private minutes, 12 Nov. 1872, A1/3/5, SL.

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28 Yates, Control through Communication, 25-63; Leigh-Bennett, E. P., On This Evidence: A Study of the Legal and General Life Assurance Society since its Formation in 1836 (London, 1937), 98Google Scholar; Price, Leah, “Stenographic Masculinity,” in Literary Secretaries/Secretarial Culture, eds. Price, Leah and Thurschwell, Pamela (Burlington, 2005)Google Scholar; Warwick, Andrew, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics (Chicago, 2003), 328–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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36 Trebilcock, Phoenix Assurance, 2: 104; Supple, Royal Exchange Assurance, 396; National Mutual head-office salaries, Dec. 1913, 34,562/1, GL; Yorkshire branch staff salaries, GA 2707, AG.

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38 Average age of appointment age is taken from Edinburgh Life staff notebook, CU 2567, AG; Clerical Medical salary books, Acc.2005/022, CM; National Provident salary returns, 20,293, GL; Legal & General staff register, 36,299/1, GL.

39 Clerical Medical salary books, Acc.2005/022, CM.

40 PM 46 (1885): 236; Norwich Union Magazine 11 (1892): 3; Insurance Record (henceforth IR) 39 (1901): 71-73; Conder, Story of the London Life, 224. On women's roles, see, for example, IR 41 (1903): 376; 39 (1901): 71-73; Besant, Our Centenary, 145.

41 Alliance board minutes, 9 May 1860, 1 Mar. 1865,12,162/6, GL; Church of England Fire & Life Assurance Society board minutes, 24 Dec. 1857,17 June 1858,5 Mar. 1862,12,160D/4, GL;PM44 (1893): 126,136.

42 Walford, C., The Insurance Cyclopaedia (London, 1871-1880), 1: 514Google Scholar; 2: 398; IR 38 (1900): 603.

43 Lindsay, Maurice, Count All Men Mortal: A History of Scottish Provident, 1837-1987 (Edinburgh, 1987), 120Google Scholar; Bankers’ Magazine 49 (1888): 798Google Scholar; PM 54 (1893): 346Google Scholar; Champness, Arthur, A Century of Progress (London, 1937), 52Google Scholar; Blake, Esto Perpetua, 28; Walford, , Insurance Cyclopaedia, 1: 261–62Google Scholar; Provident Life notes, 143, 14,311, GL; Yorkshire board minutes, 27 May 1891, GA 1231, AG.

44 Clerical Medical board minutes, vol. 1, 5 Oct. 1825, SH14, CM; Atlas board minutes, 30 June 1808,16,170/1, GL.

45 Rock Life Assurance Company board minutes, 3 June 1813, 21,208/2, GL; Guardian Insurance Company board minutes, Feb. 1867 and 21 Feb. 1868, 14,281/11, GL; Law Union committee reports, 6 Feb. 1889, 21,263, GL; Atlas board minutes, 16 Nov. 1809 and 7 Mar. 1811,16,170/1, GL.

46 See, for example, Lindsay, Count All Men Mortal, 71; Tregoning and Cockerill, Friends for Life, 169; PM 49 (1888): 576, 854.

47 Rock, Centenary, 18; Digby Besant to George King, 22 Mar. 1909; Besant to G. S. Crisford, 11 Apr. 1910, Clerical Medical actuary's private letter book, E21, Acc.2005/022, CM; “Particulars to be Furnished by a Candidate for a Clerkship,” c. 1915, Acc.2006/022, box LD063, CM.

48 See, for example, Lindsay, Count All Men Mortal, 61-62; Standard Life private minutes, 30 Nov. and 11 Dec. 1846, A1/3/1, SL.

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51 The only striking examples of entrepreneurial life-insurance clerks were the many embezzlers who made their presence felt: see Ogborn, Equitable Assurances, 153-54, and Robb, George, White-Collar Crime in Modern England: Financial Fraud and Business Morality, 1845-1929 (Cambridge, U.K., 1992), 11–30, 125-36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Based on biographical information from the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, Post Magazine, Walford's Cyclopaedia, and company histories and archival sources cited herein relating to 195 British actuaries appointed between 1800 and 1914.

53 Alliance board minutes, 24 Jan. 1866, 12,162/8, GL; Sandau, Andrew Van, An Exposition of the Author's Experience as One of the Assured in the ‘Alliance’ British & Foreign Life & Fire Assurance Company (London, 1856), 12–18Google Scholar; PM52 (1891): 610; Warner, S. G., “Opening Address by the President,” JIA 51 (1918): 22Google Scholar.

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55 Royal Farmers board reports, 4 July 1872, 24 Mar. 1874, May 1879, and May 1884, 14,991, GL. On “personalized promotion” in American life offices during this time, see Kwolek-Folland, Engendering Business, 26-27.

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58 Council minutes, 30 Dec. 1858, 4/1/4/1, FA; Davidson, Andrew Rutherford, The History of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, 1856-1956 (Edinburgh, 1956), 64Google Scholar; Simmonds, Institute of Actuaries, 224, 227-28; JIA 24 (1883): 148Google Scholar.

59 IR 3 (1865): 14; Council minutes, Dec. 1854, MBK 958, Institute of Actuaries archives, London.

60 JIA 33 (1897): 437 and 26 (1887): 223; Actuarial Society of Edinburgh minutes, paper by David Chisholm, 7 Feb. 1861, 5/1/1/1, FA. On Cambridge pedagogy, see Warwick, Masters of Theory, 38, 56, 153, 202, 284; Wise, M. Norton, ed., The Values of Precision (Princeton, 1995), 227Google Scholar.

61 JIA 57 (1926): 343; Porter, Theodore M., Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, 1995), 7Google Scholar. On Tripos coaches, see Warwick, Masters of Theory, 248, 518.

62 Newbatt, Benjamin, “Opening Address by the President,” JIA 29 (1891): 7Google Scholar; JIA 64 (1933): 548Google Scholar; Cockburn, Henry, “Opening Address by the President,” JIA 39 (1905): 16Google Scholar.

63 Council minutes, 16 Oct. 1896,4/1/4/3, FA; Actuarial Society of Edinburgh minutes, 22 June 1874 and various pages, 5/1/1/1, FA.

64 Edinburgh Life board minutes, 4 Dec. 1856, CU 2733,19 June 1878, CU 2742, AG; Clerical Medical salary books, Ace.2005/022, CM.

65 IR 7 (1869): 42; Besant, Our Centenary, 204.

66 PM 68 (1907): 732, 747. For examples of such cases, see Minnitt, Jack, The Sun Life Story, 1810-1985 (Bristol, 1985), 39–40Google Scholar; Schooling, William, Alliance Assurance, 1824-1924 (London, 1924), 29Google Scholar; PM 50 (1889): 318Google Scholar and 52 (1891): 89; Policy-holder 2 (1884): 62Google Scholar.

67 Economist, 3 Dec. 1910.

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70 Dictionary of National Biography, entries on Rathbone and Richardson.

71 Clerical Medical salary books, Acc.2005/022, CM; Edinburgh Life staff notebook, CU 2567, AG.

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73 Holcombe, Victorian Ladies at Work, 150-51; Jordan, “Lady Clerks,” 66; Yorkshire branch staff salaries, GA 2707, AG.

74 Supple, Royal Exchange Assurance, 388-89; Alliance board minutes, 9 Feb. 1881, 12,162/12, GL; PM 54 (1893): 107 and 42 (1881): 267; Yorkshire board minutes, 29 Feb. 1888, GA 1228, AG.

75 PM 54 (1893): 107.

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77 Bjelopera, City of Clerks, 88-103 (quotation on p. 100).

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82 Birmingham Insurance Institute, Golden Jubilee Year, 1937 (Birmingham, 1937)Google Scholar; PM 52 (1891): 517Google Scholar; 48 (1887): 124; 50 (1889): 635.

83 Robinson, Fred Miller, The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography (Chapel Hill, 1993), 34Google Scholar.

84 PM 46 (1885): 593Google Scholar; 50 (1889): 184; 47 (1886): 593; 55 (1894): 160; Caledonian Journal 1 (1892): 73Google Scholar.

85 PM 58 (1897): 747; Council minutes, 16 Feb. 1894, 4/1/4/2, FA.

86 Sandiford, Keith A. P., Cricket and the Victorians (Aldershot, U.K., 1994), 1Google Scholar. Insurance cricket matches were regularly reported in the Post Magazine, starting in 1890.

87 Lowerson, Sport and the English Middle Classes, 81; Ibis 13 (1890): 28.

88 See, for example, Caledonian Journal 1 (1892): 60Google Scholar. For Scottish insurance managers who golfed, see Davidson, History of the Faculty of Actuaries, 88; PM 74 (1913): 345Google Scholar.

89 PM 55 (1894): 431Google Scholar; 57 (1896): 441.

90 Lowerson, Sport and the English Middle Classes, 14, 42-49; Wigglesworth, Neil, The Evolution of English Sport (London, 1996), 36–37Google Scholar; PM 57 (1896): 402Google Scholar; Ibis 10 (1887): 315.

91 PM 56 (1895): 813; Law Union & Crown Athletic Club minutes, 3 June 1912, June 1913, 21,275, GL.

92 PM 57 (1896): 441, 464; Athletic Record and Billiard Chronicle, ms 15/4, Scottish Amicable archives; Pearl Assuance, 153; Law Union & Crown Athletic Club minutes, 21,275, GL; Watson, Ibis Cricket, 66; PM52 (1891): 778.

93 Ibis 13 (1890): 125, 148; Lowerson, Sport and the English Middle Classes, 90.

94 Conder, Story of the London Life, 226; JIA 75 (1949): 132Google Scholar; Letter from J. B. Hirst to R. H. Gudgeon, 12 Nov. 1963, recalling a social gathering held 5 Feb. 1898, GA 2777, AG. On masculinity and mathematics at Cambridge, see Warwick, Masters of Theory, 179-99.

95 Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody, 98,119-20; Wild, The Rise of the Office Clerk, 62, ch. 4, various pages. Wild points out that the positive resolution of these plots marked a change from earlier depictions of clerks by novelists like George Gissing, whose clerks were equally aspirational but much less likely to succeed.

96 Wild, The Rise of the Office Clerk, 64-73. On the Royal Insurance Boating Club, see PM 65 (1904): 889.

97 Wild, Rise of the Office Clerk, 96.

98 Our Own Magazine, no. 1 (1919): 19 (ES 6/5/1/1, ZFS).