From the Civil List to Deferred Pay: The British Government, Superannuation and Pensions 1810- 1909 ‘Throughout his long service Moses James Nobbs has discharged his duties with uniform diligence and fidelity to the entire satisfaction of his superior officers. By Command of the Postmaster General.’ [Postal Museum POST 1/231] Kathleen Francis McIlvenna Institute of Historical Research, University of London PhD, January 2019 1 I certify that this thesis is my own work: 2 Abstract The history of pensions tends to bookmark the nineteenth century. It either focuses on the pensions associated with placemen, sinecurists and the Civil List, elements of ‘Old Corruption’ targeted by the early nineteenth-century reformists. Or, the focus is on the emergence of old-age pensions towards the end of the century—the different schemes and ideologies that ultimately culminated in the pivotal 1908 Old Age Pensions Act. However, over the course of the nineteenth century occupational pensions were growing across a number of industries. This thesis aims to focus on those pensions, drawing out the motivation behind their creation and implementation. Using the theories of new economic sociologists as a methodological framework the thesis looks closely at the definition of pensions and how this was changed and manipulated by the government, other organisations and workers. In 1859 the British government passed the Superannuation Act. This Act entitled all civil servants who had served for ten years or more and were unable to work due to old age or infirmity to retire on a fraction of their final salary. The Act was an important part of the reform of the Civil Service but in many ways it was also a watershed for retirement remuneration. It built on previous regulation that had established the condition of a retirement payment to be based on age, as well as evidence and ideas of loyalty. But it importantly made this form of payment without the need for employee contribution. Pensions were now part of the employment contract and standardised across the Civil Service, including the lowest paid letter-carriers and rural messengers of the Post Office. This system was extremely influential. The thesis examines its impact not only on Post Office workers within the Civil Service but also on pension provisions in related industries, including the East India Company, Bank of England and two railway companies. Through examination of this range of institutions, the variation in ideology and practice behind nineteenth-century pensions become apparent. By the end of the century, the civil servant and the aged pauper were portrayed both as equals and as polar opposites. Both perspectives rested on whether pensions were viewed as deferred pay or as remuneration solely due to service and loyalty. The end of the nineteenth century saw a tug of war between civil servants and the government over the definition of the Civil Service superannuation. This thesis argues that the government maintained control over the provision by refusing to define superannuation as deferred pay, but it gave Civil Servants the concession of including provisions for families within the superannuation system. Civil servants were forced to concede their claim of entitlement to ensure their demands for families were met. 3 Acknowledgements An Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Award permitted me the space and means to explore my interest in historical research and fascination with the nineteenth century, communication and work. I am eternally grateful to my supervisor, Professor Miles Taylor for helping to guide me through the possibilities as well as providing intellectual support and direction whilst I settled on a historical theme and methodological direction. I am grateful to the AHRC and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. The research question underpinning this thesis was stimulated by a collection of documents in the Postal Museum’s archive (then known as the British Postal Museum and Archive). These documents were the pension applications within POST 1, the Treasury letters; they were predominantly used by family historians. I fell in love with these documents and the insight into the lives of workers they contained. My question was simply: why did these documents exist at all? Thank you to all the staff at the Postal Museum, notably Dr Adrian Steel and Chris Taft, who have helped me access and interrogate these and other sources. Over the past six years or so I have been very fortunate to work with and be inspired by a number of historians. I would particularly like to mention Vicky Davis, Dr Helen Glew, Dr Anne Murphy and Dr Caroline Nielson for their interest in and encouragement of my research, as well as their support and advice. Dr George Gosling deserves a special mention for introducing me to the work of Professor Viviana A. Zelizer—an important turning point in the crystallisation of my ideas. The broader academic community has been extremely supportive and there are many more people I could thank—for help not just with the thesis, but with teaching and the negotiation of the two working worlds I straddled over the past six years. A big thank you to colleagues at Enfield Museum Service, the Royal Armouries, History Workshop Journal, the University of Hertfordshire, the University of Westminster and, my current home, the University of Derby. A particular mention to Professor Matthew Davies and Professor Catherine Hall, who first encouraged me to do a PhD. I am also extremely grateful to my examiners, Professor Martin Daunton and Professor Pat Thane for their time, consideration and comments on my work. I want to finish with a big thesis hug to my friends and family outside of academia. Both my mum and dad gave me a good grounding in a career in academic and public history—whether by watching Wild West documentaries or historical and political debates with me. Thank you to my mum, sister, niece and nephew for all your love and support. Finally, to my husband Jon, my son Liam and my daughter Caitlín, who arrived between submission and examination—thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you. It is to my family that this doctoral thesis is dedicated. 4 Table of Contents List of Images 6 List of Tables 6 List of Figures 6 Introduction: Rethinking Pension Reform in the Long 7 Nineteenth Century 1. From Civil List to Civil Service Superannuation: The 1859 42 Superannuation Act 2. Where Two Worlds Collide: The East India Company’s 66 Pensions and Superannuation Systems 3. The Challenges of Government Standardisation: Pensions 94 and the Post Office in the Nineteenth Century 4. Discretion and Control: The Slow Formalisation of Bank of 127 England’s Pensions 5. Aspiration and Superannuation: The Railways and 161 Pensions 6. Deferred Pay, Reward and Charity: Family and the 188 Ownership of Civil Service Superannuation Conclusion 214 Bibliography 220 5 List of Images Title Page: James Moses Nobbs, the longest serving and the last of the Mail Coach Guards in the Royal Mail, serving fifty-five years (1836-1891) initially on the Mail Coaches and later on the railways in Travelling Post Offices. At the time of his superannuation application, Nobbs was seventy-four years old and on a salary of £13 3s a week, plus allowances. He was granted a pension of £97 19s 1d a year. Watercolour by H. E. Brown in c. 1890. Copyright: Postal Museum 2004-0180. List of Tables Page 1. Changes to Civil Service superannuation 1810-1859 21 2. Total of pensions and superannuation payments granted by the East India 77 Company 3. Amount of £s granted in pensions by the East India Company 87 4. Number of established and unestablished staff employed by the Post Office 106 5. Number of employees retiring in 1861 with role, average age and average 109 length of service 6. Number of employees retiring in 1891 with role, average age and average 111 length of service 7. Selection of departments with average salary and average pension 137 8. Railway superannuation schemes 177 List of Figures Page 1. Totals of cost of pensions compared to superannuation payments 1815- 78 1825 2. Amount of £s granted in pensions from returns of the East India 88 Company's home accounts to parliament 3. Number of permanent (on the establishment) employees at the Post Office 104 from postmaster general annual reports 4. Percentage of pensioners to permanent staff in the Post Office. 108 5. Graph showing number of pensioners from each Bank of England pensions 133 ledge 6. Comparison of number of Bank of England pensioners between 1798 to 134 1828 7. Railway Clearing House superannuation fund balance in £ 180 8. Income for the Railway Clearing House superannuation fund 1874-1909 181 9. % of Railway Clearing House superannuation fund expenditure 1874-1909 182 6 Introduction: Rethinking Pension Reform in the Long Nineteenth Century ‘What is a pension? No doubt a “pension”, strictly constructed, is an annuity; ... As the word is generally understood, it means a reward or retiring allowance, granted in pursuance of a contract of service, or in consideration of long or special employment, or of injury therein, of by way of compensation for the abolition of a public post which a person rightly expected to continue; or, more generally and correctly, it is deferred pay, arising either from specific reservations from salary or wage, or general reservations by those salaries or wage having been less by reason of such stipulated deferred payments or pensions.’ L. C. Alexander, Industrial Superannuation versus Pauper Pensions, 1899 At the end of the nineteenth century, pensions were a controversial topic: debate raged over what a pension was, who should benefit from one and who should pay for it.