CONTENTS Foreword SECTION ONE: The first hundred years by Alan Jenkins Chapter 1 Fire! 8 Chapter 2 The young company 11 Chapter 3 Edwardian days 17 Chapter 4 ‘For the duration’ 24 Chapter 5 Between the wars 27 Chapter 6 Cotswold Lodge 37 Chapter 7 The post-war decade 41 Chapter 8 Aldwych and Olga 48 Chapter 9 Home and abroad 52 Chapter 10 On the move 57 Chapter 11 The eighties 60 SECTION TWO: No ordinary company by Graham Doswell Chapter 12 Catastrophes, crises and costs: a change in climate 70 Chapter 13 Rebuilding and regeneration 79 Chapter 14 Turning the tide: alliances, acquisitions and partnerships 84 Chapter 15 Once more unto the breach: recovery, renewal and rebranding 92 Chapter 16 Building on the heritage: a new generation 102 Chapter 17 2012 and beyond – on the horizon 114 Foreword 125 years is a significant milestone for any organisation. However, many companies are a lot older. So it’s not the years that are important, it’s what you’ve achieved during them which really matters. For Ecclesiastical 125 years have been about making a difference. To our customers and communities. The Company is proud that it has been doing this for over a century, and is committed to continuing to make a difference in the years to come. Ecclesiastical has experienced a great deal of change in 125 years and has grown dramatically – our annual turnover is now more than half a billion. The Company was established to protect churches and church buildings from fire in 1887. Which it’s still doing today. From these roots we’ve grown to provide tailored insurance for organisations and people who care. We use our skills and experience to provide reassurance and advice to the charity, heritage, property investors, care and education sectors as well as other faiths. And we work with brokers to create tailored schemes for specialist groups of customers and bought insurance businesses overseas and brokers in the UK. Today we’re a specialist insurance and financial services company providing honest advice, deep expertise and caring protection. The Company is also charitably-owned, so a commitment to communities is at its heart. In part we are defined by our memories and our values - this book aims to provide insights into both. The first section was written for our centenary anniversary by Alan Jenkins. With a foreword by the chairman of the time Sir Alan McLintock who amongst other things was also chair of the Woolwich Building Society. The second section, our last 25 years, was written by my predecessor, Graham Doswell. I'd like to thank him for his endeavours and perspectives. I hope the combined effort is enjoyable to read, helps all gain a little different view of Ecclesiastical and helps generations to come appreciate their roots. Michael Tripp Group Chief Executive of Ecclesiastical July 2012 EIO THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF ECCLESIASTICAL INSURANCE OFFICE PLC WRITTEN BY ALAN JENKINS Published in 1987 by Springwood Books 4 Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the many EIO people who have helped him with information and suggestions in the writing of this book. My particular gratitude is due to the President, Mr Allan W. Grant OBE, MC, TD, LL.B, FCII, for permission to draw upon his own account of the Company’s history and the fruits of his years of research. Amongst the many who spared the time to be interviewed, may I thank the Chairman, Mr C. Alan McLintock CA; Mr Bernard V. Day BA, LL.B, FCH, Managing Director; Mr Ronald D.L. Jarvis FCIS, my guide and mentor; the late Mr Bernard B. Stonebridge MBE, and the Rt. Rev. R.F. Cartwright; Messrs John D. McArdell ACII, Derek W. Stapleton FCII, A.J. Sandord FCIS, Derek Haydon FCA, FCIS, Peter C. Sparkhall FIA, Graham Lilley, Ray Beckingham, Roger Atkinson and Gordon V Mills; Mrs Margaret Williams and Mrs Doreen Owen. Pensioners were also most helpful, especially Messrs Martin Tweed MBE, FCII, Jack W.B. White, Kenneth J. Champion and J.H. Young. Mr Peter Jacob MA, ACII, FCIIA, kindly provided much information on the fire at York Minster. Alan Jenkins 5 Foreword The Ecclesiastical Insurance Office, known to many as the EIO, lays no claim to being amongst the largest or best known companies in the insurance industry. From its small beginnings in 1887 when it was founded by churchmen to insure Church property, the EIO has nevertheless a unique record of service to the Church of England and, in recent years, to a wider range of customers, institutional and personal, who have used to advantage the company’s expertise in many specialised facets of insurance. Owned by a charitable trust, it occupies a niche of its own within the industry. Apart from funds needed to develop the business, its profits have been distributed year by year through grants to its principle Church customers. Over the century of the Company’s existence, these grants have amounted to more than £10 million. An important anniversary such as the centenary which we are now celebrating provides an opportunity to look back as well as forward and in particular to record some of the significant landmarks in our history. As in many other organisations, it is the people standing behind the events who make up the real fabric of the story. The EIO has had the good fortune to be served throughout its hundred years by men and women of outstanding conscientiousness and dedication of whom it has always been very proud. It is my particular pleasure to write this foreword to our history as a tribute to all of them. No history can ever be all-inclusive, but this book gives a vivid account of the development and expansion of an organisation which has always endeavoured to combine professionalism with a genuine sense of service to the community in which it has operated. It is our hope that readers will find it an absorbing tale both of the growth of a business and of some of the contemporary events of the past century which influenced that growth. We are grateful to our President, Allan Grant, who compiled much of the material from which the book was written and to the author, Alan Jenkins, who talked with many of the staff, past and present, and who has prepared a fascinating history of a very special company. Alan McLintock Former Chairman of Ecclesiastical June 1987 6 1887 - 1912 CHAPTER 1 Fire! In the small hours of Monday, 9 July 1984, a golden glow lit up the night sky above the sleeping city of York. The Minster, one of Europe’s largest Gothic cathedrals, was on fire, the flames leaping 40 feet high. The news went round the world by radio and television almost before the citizens of York were aware of it themselves. Soon it was known that the blaze had been confined to the roof of the thirteenth-century south transept, containing the famous Rose Window celebrating the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, symbol of the transition of medieval to modern England. What had caused the fire? There were questions and criticisms. The Minster had apparently been struck by lightning. Yet there were lightning conductors, tested regularly, on all roofs and pinnacles. Why had the smoke detectors somehow allowed the blaze to burn fiercely for 20 minutes before operating the automatic alarm linked to the North Yorkshire fire control centre? Some devout people thought the fire was an act of divine displeasure at the conse - cration, only two days before, of the controversial Canon David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham. ‘It is hard’ someone wrote to The Times ‘not to be reminded of Elijah and the priests of Baal.’ The Minster had seen only three fires before, the first in 1137. In 1829 a lunatic, Jonathan Martin, had fired the chancel and been sent to Bedlam. Before this he had interrupted the consecration of another Bishop of Durham by brandishing a pistol and accusing all present of blasphemy and loose living. And, in 1840, a careless workman had left a lighted candle in a roof space, causing such destruction in the tower that the bells came crashing down. Now, in 1984, although the damage was estimated at ‘more than £3 million’, the Cathedral treasures were not seriously hurt. Minster clergy and lay staff, led by the Dean, the Very Rev. Ronald Jasper, and his wife Ethel, dashed into the blazing building and rescued valuable items from the High Altar and the Lady Chapel, and the priceless treasures stored in specially secured vaults in the undercroft. Although the Cathedral was covered by insurance, goodwill gifts poured in. The Queen and 31 other landowners offered oak trees to replace the roof timbers. An old-age pensioner sent the fire fund a £1 note – ‘It’s the best I can do. I love York Minster’. At a service of thanksgiving the chief officer of the 130 firemen who had taken part was presented by the Archbishop of York with the St. William of York’s Cross for ‘outstanding service to the Northern Province of the Anglican Church.’ He said afterwards: ‘The Lord was on our side as we battled with those flames, and every man in my brigade knew he was doing something special by saving York Minster’. Meanwhile Peter Gibson, the Minster’s stained-glass expert, led the restoration team, and confirmed that the Rose Window, all 7,000 pieces of it, could be saved. Two days after the fire Mr Bernard Day, Managing Director of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Office, arrived in York to present the Dean the Chapter with a ‘first instalment’ cheque for £500,000 as part of the Cathedral’s claim.