Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation Ltd
The Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation was established in 1876 as a sister company to the Ocean, Railway and General Accident Assurance Company Ltd. The company was incorporated on June 21 1877 as Ocean and General Guarantee Corporation Ltd.
Company History
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation magazine advertisement
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation poster advertisement
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation proposal
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation Moorgate office
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation coupon
Ocean motor sign at night, Farnham Place, 1925
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation Brighton office
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation prospectus
Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation proposal
Ocean and General initially transacted guarantee insurance. According to an advertisement from 1879, guarantees were provided for
"poor law officers, collectors of taxes, maltsters, and for officers of municipal corporations, local boards of health school boards etc. Also for managers, secretaries, cashiers, bookkeepers and clerks in banks, railways, mercantile houses, trading companies, institutions etc. for official liquidators, receivers in chancery, trustees in bankruptcy, commercial travellers, agents, collectors of rates etc."
On November 13 1890, Ocean and General and Ocean, Railway and General merged to form to the Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation. A year later, Ocean Accident was offering accident, accident liability and fidelity guarantee insurance and, by 1894, had extended its business to burglary and housebreaking, employers' liability, insurance during sickness, mortgage insurance and indemnity insurance.
The company continued to grow and a note on a circular from 1896 claimed it was
"the largest, oldest and most successful company transacting mortgage and special indemnity insurance".
In 1901, total premium income passed £1,000,000, the first time a British casualty insurer had achieved this milestone.
In 1910, the company became a subsidiary of the Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd and, by 1918, was offering accident, fidelity guarantee, employers' liability, fire and burglary, motor car, public liability, boiler and lift, excess bad debts and credit executorships and trusteeships insurance. Ocean Accident's Irish business was transferred to Hibernian General Insurance Ltd in 1965. The company was dissolved on December 23 2005.
Key dates
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1876 | The company is established |
| 1890 | Merges with the Ocean, Railway and General Accident Assurance Company |
| 1901 | Total premium income passes £1,000,000 |
| 1910 | Becomes a subsidiary of the Commercial Union Assurance Company |
| 1965 | Irish business transferred to Hibernian General Insurance |
| 2005 | The company is dissolved |
Did you know...?
- According to the 1898 staff rules,
"any member of staff who marries while his salary is less than £150 without the special consent of the staff committee or board will be immediately discharged".
- In 1898, the company appointed its first lady typists, Miss F Bennett and Edith Robson, while the first lady clerk was appointed in 1901.
- When Ralph Nichols died in 2001 he was still the last British player to have won the men's singles at the All England Badminton Championship. The former Ocean Assurance inspector had won the title in 1938. Nichols retired from insurance in 1968.
Subsidiaries and constituents*
| Year | Company name |
|---|---|
| 1874 - 1878 | Commercial Guarantee Society Ltd |
| 1871 - 1890 | Ocean, Railway and General Accident Assurance Company Ltd |
| 1875 - 1894 | Imperial Union & Accident Assurance Company Ltd |
| 1886 - 1894 | Economic Fire Office Ltd (accident business) |
| 1886 - 1895 | Mortgage Insurance Corporation Ltd (part of business) |
| 1879 - 1898 | General Accident Guarantee and Indemnity Company Ltd (of Dublin) |
| 1889 - 1899 | The Security Company Ltd |
| 1825 - 1900 | Lancashire Insurance Company (accident business) |
| 1898 - 1901 | Employers' Indemnity Company Ltd of Nottingham |
| 1907 - 1910 | Law Guarantee Trust and Accident Society Ltd (license business) |
| 1919 - 1921 | Columbia Casualty 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 |
|---|---|
| 1877 - 1893 | Mansion House Buildings, 4 Queen Victoria Street, London |
| 1893 - 1924 | 36-44 Moorgate, London (rebuilt 1924 - 1928) |
| 1924 - 1928 | Adelaide House, London (temporary premises while Moorgate offices were being rebuilt) |
| 1928 - 1966 | 36-44 Moorgate, London |
| 1966 - 1969 | 24 Cornhill, London |
| 1969 - | St Helen's, 1 Undershaft, London |
Staff and officials
Manager and secretary
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 1877 - 1883 | Robert Dolphin Wood (formerly of the Commercial Accident Company) |
| 1883 - 1911 | Richard James Paull |
| 1911 - 1921 | T M E Armstrong |
| 1921 - 1922 | W Singleton Hooper |
Manager
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 1923 - 1946 | W Langton Cavers (joint manager) |
| 1927 - 1940 | W T Perry (joint manager) |
| 1946 - 1955 | Wilfred Leng |
| 1955 - 1957 | F E P Sandilands |
| 1957 - 1963 | A B Kempton |
| 1963 - 1968 | E Orbell (no manager listed after 1968) |
| Position not listed after 1968 | |
Secretary
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 1923 - 1943 | Christmas Evans |
| 1944 - 1950 | J H Emmett |
| 1950 - 1969 | L N Wells |
| 1969 - 1971 | H T Frost |
| 1971 - 1977 | D R Cobden |
| 1977 - 1988 at least | G T Spratt |
Directors (1879)
- Henry Pelham Burn
- Thomas Joseph Fallon
- Henry Solomon
- Richard Pryce Harrison
- Patrick MacNaghten Tait
- Arthur Kelly Thompson
Home branches and agencies
- Manchester (first branch opened in December 1877)
- Birmingham (1882)
- Bristol (by 1889)
- Cambridge (by 1889)
- Glasgow (by 1889)
- Leeds (by 1889)
- Liverpool (by 1889)
- Newcastle (by 1891)
- Brighton (by 1896)
- Cardiff (by 1896)
- Edinburgh (by 1896)
- London, West End (by 1896)
- London, Law Courts (by 1896)
- Maidstone (by 1896)
- Southampton (by 1896)
- Belfast (by 1899)
- Hull (by 1899)
- London, City (by 1907)
- East London (by 1907)
- South London (by 1907)
- London, Mark Lane (by 1907)
- North London (by 1907)
- North West London (by 1907)
- Kingston on Thames (by 1907)
- Aberdeen (by 1907)
- Carlisle (by 1907)
- Hanley (by 1907)
- Leicester (by 1907)
- Nottingham (by 1907)
- Portsmouth (by 1907)
- Reading (by 1907)
- Sheffield (by 1907)
Overseas branches
- Dublin, Ireland (by 1896)
- New York, United States (by 1895)
- France (by 1902)
- Cape Town, South Africa (by 1904)
- Johannesburg, South Africa (by 1904)
- Durban, South Africa (by 1904)
- Cork, Ireland (by 1907)
- Australia (by 1908)
- New Zealand (by 1908)
- Toronto Canada (by 1909)
- Shanghai, China (by 1906)
- Singapore (by 1909)
- Hong Kong (by 1909)
- Korea (1912)
- Holland (by 1923)
- Belgium (by 1923)
- Calcutta, India (by 1924)
- Bombay, India (by 1924)
- Ceylon, Sri Lanka (by 1926)
- Java, Batavia (by 1926)
- Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma) (by 1929)
- Sourabaya (by 1929)
- Sumatra (by 1929)
- Nairobi (by 1930)
- Kampala, (by 1930)
- Karachi (by 1930)
- Egypt (by 1931)
- Syria (by 1933)
- Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (by 1936)
In the archives
The Aviva archive contains records relating to the running of the Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation between 1877 and 1997. The collection includes board minutes, memoranda and articles of association, policies, proposals, investment ledgers, journals, powers of attorney, registers of directors, photographs of staff and buildings, board of trade returns, annual reports and accounts and financial papers.
Other resources
Records relating to Ocean Accident can be found at the Guildhall library
