Accidental Death Insurance Company (No. 2)

The second Accidental Death Insurance Company was established in 1854 as the Travellers’ and Marine Insurance Company, which had originally been set up as an accident company granting policies to combine land and sea risks. The company was liquidated in 1868.

Company history

Accidental Death Insurance Company policy header

In 1857, the directors of the first Accidental Death Insurance Company transferred all their business to Travellers' and Marine to protect their original shareholders from loss resulting from a series of frauds. Two years later, the company changed its name under an act of parliament to the Accidental Death Insurance Company (No. 2) and officially took on the business of the first Accidental Death Company.

In 1865, the company transferred its business to the Accidental and Marine Insurance Corporation, which had been established to take over the business and extend the marine department that had been operating since 1859. The marine business was not a success, however, and, in 1867, Accidental Death decided to take its business back and transfer it to the first Accident Insurance Company Ltd.

In 1870 the first Accident Insurance Company's business was transferred to the second Accident Insurance Company Ltd, which was acquired by the Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd in 1906.

Key dates

Year	Event
1854	The company is established
1857	The first Accidental Death transfers its business to the company
1859	Name changes to the second Accidental Death Insurance Company
1865	Business is transferred to the Accidental and Marine Insurance Corporation
1867	Business is recalled and transferred to the first Accident Insurance Company
1868	The company is liquidated
1870	The first Accident Insurance Company business is transferred to the second Accident Insurance Company
1906	The second Accident Insurance Company is acquired by the Commercial Union Assurance Company

Did you know...?

Following a pit disaster at the Oaks Colliery near Barnsley at the end of 1866, letters appeared in the press criticising the company for refusing to pay out on the death of Mr Parkin Jeffcock, a mining engineer who had descended into the pit to rescue those trapped and lost his life in a further explosion. The company disputed liability on the grounds of his "wilful exposure" to danger.

Subsidiaries and constituents*

Year	Company name
1849 - 1857	Accidental Death Insurance Company (No.1)
1851 - 1859	Times and State Insurance Company (accident business only)
1852 - 1859	Maritime Passengers' Insurance Company (accident business only)
1854 - 1859	British Nation Life Assurance Association (accident business only)
1854 - 1859	Marine and General Travellers' Insurance Company

* Please note the first date given is the date of the establishment of the company and the second date is the date the company was acquired or became a subsidiary. Where only one date is given the company was established as a subsidiary of the parent company. Where one date is preceded by a hyphen the date of the establishment of the company is not known.

Head office premises

Year	Address
by 1855 - pre 1859	5 Gresham Street, London
1859 - 1867	7 Bank Buildings, Lothbury, London

Staff and officials

Secretary

Year	Name
by 1866 - 1867	Mr Oram
1867	W H Scattergood

Managing director

Year	Name
by 1855	Edward Solly

In the archives

The Aviva archive contains specimen policies relating to the Accidental Death Insurance Company (No. 2) from 1859 to 1865.