The recruitment of directors to the board of the Great Western Railway I

Journal of Transport History

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1996, Pages

  Channon, Geoffrey ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0038849532     PISSN: 00225266     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002252669601700102     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Terence R. Gourvish, 'The railways and the development of managerial enterprise in Britain, 1850-1930', in A. Kobayashi and H. Morikawa (eds), The Development of Managerial Enterprise. Proceedings of the Fuji Conference, Tokyo (Tokyo, 1986), pp. 101-46.
2. A. D. Chandler, Jr, with the assistance of Takashi Hikino, Scale and Scope: the Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, Ma, 1990), p. 15.
3. Geoffrey Hughes, 'The board of directors of the London & North Eastern Railway', Journal of Transport History, third series, 13 (1992), pp. 162-79.
4. T. R. Gourvish, Mark Huish and the London and North Western Railway: a study of management (Leicester, 1972), pp. 23-5, 109-16, 167-82; R. J. Irving, The North Eastern Railway Company, 1870-1914 (Leicester, 1976), pp. 131-8. T. C. Barker, 'Lord Salisbury, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, 1868-72', in S. Marriner (ed.), Business and Businessmen: Studies in Business, Economic and Accounting History (Liverpool, 1978), pp. 81-103.
5. T. R. Gourvish, Mark Huish and the London and North Western Railway: a study of management (Leicester, 1972), pp. 23-5, 109-16, 167-82; R. J. Irving, The North Eastern Railway Company, 1870-1914 (Leicester, 1976), pp. 131-8. T. C. Barker, 'Lord Salisbury, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, 1868-72', in S. Marriner (ed.), Business and Businessmen: Studies in Business, Economic and Accounting History (Liverpool, 1978), pp. 81-103.
6. T. R. Gourvish, Mark Huish and the London and North Western Railway: a study of management (Leicester, 1972), pp. 23-5, 109-16, 167-82; R. J. Irving, The North Eastern Railway Company, 1870-1914 (Leicester, 1976), pp. 131-8. T. C. Barker, 'Lord Salisbury, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, 1868-72', in S. Marriner (ed.), Business and Businessmen: Studies in Business, Economic and Accounting History (Liverpool, 1978), pp. 81-103.
7. P. Stanworth and A. Giddens, 'An economic elite: a demographic profile of company chairmen', in Stanworth and Giddens (eds), Elites and Power in British Society (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 97-8.
8. For gross traffic receipts see Geoffrey Channon, 'The Great Western Railway under the British Railways Act of 1921', Business History Review, LV (1981), p. 192.
9. David J. Jeremy, 'The hundred largest employers in the UK, 1907, 1935, 1955', Business History, 33 (1991), pp. 93-111.
10. P. Wardley, 'The anatomy of big business: aspects of corporate development in the twentieth century', Business History, 33 (1991), pp. 278-9.
11. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
12. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
13. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
14. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
15. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
16. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
17. Apart from GWR material at the Public Record Office (PRO), 'local' sources, and family papers, where they are available, the main sources used include: Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Directory (1848-1923); Debrett's (from 1867); David J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography (1984-86); Dictionary of National Biography, Directory of Directors (from 1881); Dod's Parliamentary Manual (from 1840); Railway Gazette; Stock Exchange Yearbook (from 1881); The Times, Who's Who (from 1850); Wills and Administrations, London.
18. Statement made at the GWR annual meeting, 25 February 1931, reproduced in die unpublished 'Historical Notes on the Directorate of the Company' (1943), pp. 14-15, PRO, RAIL 258/433.
19. For details of Stamp's career see Michael Bywater, 'Stamp, Josiah Charles, 1st Lord Stamp of Shordands', in David J. Jeremy (ed), Dictionary of Business Biography (DBB), 5 (1986), pp. 260-73.
20. Some of this Information will be incorporated in a forthcoming article, 'Railways and English landed society before 1914'.
21. Calculated from GWR shareholder register No. 1, dated 29 October 1835 and sealed on 26 February 1836, PRO, RAIL 251/1. If probable members of the directors' families are included the proportion rises to between 13.9 and 14.8 per cent.
22. D. F. Gooch to G. K. Mills, secretary of the GWR, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 12 July 1904, 8 March 1905.
23. Letter from Russell to C. A. Saunders. secretary of the London Committee, PRO, RAIL 1014/37, 24 August 1837.
24. Letter from Baldwin to the chairman, the Earl of Cawdor, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 2 June 1900.
25. Letter from F. R. E. Davies, company secretary, to Macmillan, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 18 December 1929. Macmillan was a director from 1929 to 1940, then from 1945 to 1947.
26. Chandler, Scale and Scope, pp. 253-4.
27. The eventual board under the Western Group Amalgamation Scheme (1923) had twenty-five members.
28. For an excellent analysis of these events see Jack Simmons (ed.), The Birth of the Great Western Railway: Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of George Henry Gibbs (Bath, 1971), pp. 5-9.
29. For a description of these events see E. T. MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, 1833-63, rev. C. R. Clinker (1964), pp 159-61, 218, 234.
30. Quoted in 'Historical Notes . . .', PRO, RAIL 258/433.
31. Samuel Baker (1858-62), Robert Brown (1858-59) and Edward Leeming (1858-74).
32. Edward Wanklyn (1863-78), Charles Whetham (1863-67) and Richard Michell (1863-99).
33. 'Railways and English landed society before 1914', forthcoming.
34. Organisation of Board Committees', PRO, RAIL 267/123, 1 September 1863.
35. Statement made at GWR annual meeting on 30 August 1867, reproduced in 'Historical Notes . . .', PRO, RAIL 258/433, p. 23.
36. Ibid., general meeting of 29 February 1872.
37. Gerald Crompton, "Squeezing the pulpless orange": labour and capital on the railways in the inter-war years', Business History, XXXI (1989), p. 71.
38. Minutes of Board of Directors, 27 July 1928, 1 January 1929, 27 March 1931 and 5 October 1934, cited in 'Historical Notes . . .', PRO, RAIL 258/433.
39. A theme which will be explored in a subsequent article in this journal.
40. The Railway Clerk, XI, 15 March 1914; Crompton, "Squeezing".
41. Railway Service Journal, July 1927, p. 238.
42. For example: 1841, 0.57 per cent; 1860, 0-25 per cent; 1863, 0.69 per cent (the highest figure); 1930, 0.33 per cent.
43. Hughes, 'Board of directors', p. 171.
44. 'Historical Notes . . .', PRO, RAIL 258/433, p. 10, quoting a directors' report of 18 April 1850 on the recommendations of a shareholders' committee.
45. 'Historical Notes . . .', PRO, RAIL 258/433, p. 10, quoting a directors' report of 18 April 1850 on the recommendations of a shareholders' committee.
46. M. C. Reed, Investment in Railways in Britain, 1820-44: a Study in the Development of the Capital Market (1975), table 23, p. 154.
47. Simmons, Birth of the Great Western, p. 6.
48. At a general meeting on 16 February 1843 the numbers were reduced to four from each city, and on 16 August 1849 the provision was annulled altogether.
49. They were Edward Wheeler Mills (1833-63), the Rt Hon. Algernon H. Mills (1906-23) and Laurence Currie (1923-34).
50. G. Shelton, 'George Carr Glyn and the railways', Three Banks Review, 46 (1960), pp. 42-3.
51. Laurence Currie (Glyn Mills Currie & Co.), Sir Percy Bates (Midland), Viscount Inchcape (National Provincial), Charles T. Hambro (Bank of England), Cyril Edward Lloyd (Lloyd's), Sir Robert Home (Lloyd's) and Lord David Davies (Midland).
52. Geoffrey Channon, 'Gooch, Sir Daniel', DBB, 2, pp. 599-600.
53. Ibid., p 601.
54. W. R. Lawson, British Railways: a Financial Survey (1913), p. 221.
55. The correspondence and memoranda arising from this dispute are contained in PRO, RAIL 258/248, 1923.
56. Irving, North Eastern Railway, pp. 131-2.
57. For a perceptive analysis of the company's 'stabilisation' policy at Swindon see D. E. C. Eversley, 'The Great Western Railway and the Swindon works in the Great Depression', in M. C. Reed (ed.), Railways in the Victorian Economy: Studies in Finance and Economic Growth (Newton Abbot, 1969), pp. 111-37.
58. He was the largest landowner in Glamorganshire, possessing 33,920 acres with an estimated annual rental of £44,057 in 1873, at least half of which came from coal royalties, J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (1883 edition).
59. Letter from Baldwin to the chairman, the Earl of Cawdor, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 2 June 1900.
60. E. P. & W. Baldwin Ltd of Wilden Iron Works, Baldwin Son & Co. Ltd and the Anglo (Tin) Stamping Co. Ltd at Stourport; Archibald Kenrick & Sons and Thos Pumberton & Sons (formerly of Birmingham) at West Bromwich; Allen Everitt & Sons at Smethwick. Baldwin was also a director of the Metropolitan Bank. See Colin Baber and Trevor Boyns, 'Alfred Baldwin, 1841-1908', DBS, 1 (1984), pp. 116-18.
61. R. Forrest (St Fagan's, Cardiff) to H. L. Wilkinson, general manager, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 15 April 1900.
62. PRO, RAIL 258/248, 12 July 1898.
63. Ibid., 'Statement of Messrs Huntley and Palmers Traffic in the ten years ending 1897'.
64. Ibid., 1898.
65. There appears to be no evidence on this in the records of Huntley & Palmer's, held at the University of Reading, or of the GWR. On Huntley & Palmer see T. A. Corley's excellent Quaker Enterprise in Biscuits: Huntley and Palmers of Reading, 1822-1972(1972), especially pp. 131, 142, 152, 155, 166, 168 and 185.
66. For the Gibbses see William M. Matthew, The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian Guano Monopoly (1981) and Simmons, Birth of the Great Western; for the Willses, B. W. E. Alford, 'Sir George Alfred Wills (1854-1928), DBB, 5 (1986), pp. 841-3, and 'William Henry Wills, Lord Winterstoke of Blagdon (1830-1911)', ibid., pp. 843-5.
67. For the Gibbses see William M. Matthew, The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian Guano Monopoly (1981) and Simmons, Birth of the Great Western; for the Willses, B. W. E. Alford, 'Sir George Alfred Wills (1854-1928), DBB, 5 (1986), pp. 841-3, and 'William Henry Wills, Lord Winterstoke of Blagdon (1830-1911)', ibid., pp. 843-5.
68. For the Gibbses see William M. Matthew, The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian Guano Monopoly (1981) and Simmons, Birth of the Great Western; for the Willses, B. W. E. Alford, 'Sir George Alfred Wills (1854-1928), DBB, 5 (1986), pp. 841-3, and 'William Henry Wills, Lord Winterstoke of Blagdon (1830-1911)', ibid., pp. 843-5.
69. For the Gibbses see William M. Matthew, The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian Guano Monopoly (1981) and Simmons, Birth of the Great Western; for the Willses, B. W. E. Alford, 'Sir George Alfred Wills (1854-1928), DBB, 5 (1986), pp. 841-3, and 'William Henry Wills, Lord Winterstoke of Blagdon (1830-1911)', ibid., pp. 843-5.
70. C. R. Talbot, MP (1863-90), L. L. Dillwyn, MP (1863-90), and J. Talbot Dillwyn Llewellyn (1882-1923) were related.
71. C. R. Talbot, MP (1863-90), L. L. Dillwyn, MP (1863-90), and J. Talbot Dillwyn Llewellyn (1882-1923) were related.
72. C. R. Talbot, MP (1863-90), L. L. Dillwyn, MP (1863-90), and J. Talbot Dillwyn Llewellyn (1882-1923) were related.
73. For example, the appointment in 1925 of W. H. Windham-Quin (the fifth Earl of Dunraven in 1927) to succeed his relative through marriage, Lord Barrymore, who had been a member from 1904 until his death in 1925.
74. 'Historical Notes ...', PRO, RAIL 258/433.
75. Reed, Investment in Railways, p. 156, for reference to the amounts subscribed. Neither body maintained its holdings.
76. Simmons, Railway in Town and Country, pp. 173-8; W. H. Chaloner, The Social and Economic Development of Crewe (Manchester, 1950).
77. Simmons, Railway in Town and Country, pp. 173-8; W. H. Chaloner, The Social and Economic Development of Crewe (Manchester, 1950).
78. Liberals: Charles Bowles Tripp, Thomas Richard Guppy, William Singer Jacques and William Tothill. Tories: Henry Bush (chairman of the Bristol Committee), Peter Maze and Nicholas Roch.
79. For example, Gooch contacted sixty-four MPs asking them to be in their seats to oppose a railway scheme under the name 'Bristol and South Western Junction'. In the event the Bill was not pressed. Chairman's Letter Books, PRO, RAIL 253/115, 28 February, 2, 8 March 1883.
80. F. G. Saunders, chairman, to Colonel R. P. Nesbet, Chairman's Letter Books, PRO, RAIL 253/11, 18 January 1894.
81. Baldwin to the Earl of Cawdor, PRO, RAIL 258/248, 2 June 1900.
82. Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin: a Biography (1969).
83. For Long's career see Richard Murphy, 'Walter Long and the Conservative Party, 1905-21', PhD. thesis, University of Bristol (1984).
84. 'The Bouverie Connection with the Manors of Market Lavington', unpublished notes by Edward Pleydell-Bouverie, 24 February 1930, Wiltshire Record Office, 836/85.
85. Geoffrey Channon, 'Home, Robert Stevenson', DBB, 3 (1985), pp. 349-53.
86. PRO, RAIL 1005/25.
87. Ibid.
88. Geoffrey Alderman, The Railway Interest. (Leicester, 1973), pp. 108-43;
89. appendix, pp. 232-7.
90. Ibid., p. 80. However, they both remained loyal to Gladstone during the Home Rule crisis.
91. Ibid., p. 225.