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Railway Passengers Assurance Company Ltd.
Established as a joint stock company on 15 December 1848 as The Universal Railway Casualty Compensation Company. Renamed 3 days later Railway Passengers' Assurance and registered on 17 March 1849. Incorporated under the companies act on 06 November 1862 as The Railway Passengers Assurance Company, company number 00000058. Company became a subsidiary of North British and Mercantile Insurance Company (North British & Mercantile) on 26 July 1910 which became a subsidiary of Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd. (Commercial Union) in 1959. Shares in the company were transferred to Commercial Union in 1968. On 23 February 1981 it was re-registered as a private company and the name changed again on 11 March 2002 to Railway Passengers Assurance Company Ltd. The company was dissolved on 23 December 2005.
Business
The company began with a discussion in 1848 between Mr H F Holt and his clerk E Hudson [link to Ocean Railway and General] about the possibility of insurance against the railway accidents which were then an almost daily occurrence. Mr Holt became the promoter of the company and, on 24 November 1848, let it be known that a company called The Universal Railway Casualty Compensation Company was being formed. Mr Holt involved three friends, John Dean Paul, George Berkeley Harrison and Samuel Whitfield Daukes, who were already directors of a life assurance company and together they developed a plan for the new company dependant on the cooperation of railway companies and securing an arrangement for the commutation of stamp duty. On 15 December 1848 another meeting was held after which company was registered as the Universal Casualty Compensation Company "to grant assurances on the lives of persons travelling by railway and to grant, in cases, of accident not having a fatal termination, compensation to the assured for injuries received under certain conditions". Agreements were reached with some railway companies whereby their clerks would sell insurance for journeys along with the tickets to travel and with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to pay a percentage tax on premiums rather than stamp duty on each policy issued. This last agreement was vital to the success of the company as booking clerks would not have been able to sell insurance if each policy had needed to be stamped upon purchase. With these necessary agreements in place the first advertisement for the company appeared in The Times in January 1849 and set out different premiums depending on the class of fare due to the higher risks involved in insuring those who travelled in 2nd and 3rd class coaches which were roofless. The Railway Passengers was the first company specifically formed to undertake accident insurance, although limited initially to accidents on the railway, and is rightly referred to as a pioneer in this field of insurance.
On 10 November the company received its first claim following an accident between Penrith and Preston and the claimant, William Good of Dunstable, was awarded £7 6s 0d. By 1850 the company was operating on 32 railways and between January and September of that year had issued 2,808 periodical tickets and 110,074 single journey tickets. On 26 June 1852 a new act was passed allowing the company to extend its business to the insurance of any person against any kind of accident but the first general accident policy was not issued until 18 September 1855. A further act of parliament in 1881 enabled the company to undertake employers' liability insurance.
In 1885 the company came to an arrangement with W A Sandys to insure the holders of his Insurance Railway Guide. Each copy of the guide contained an insurance ticket valid for the month of the guide. The scheme was very popular, and the arrangement continued for 8 years and has been cited as the first example of accident coupon insurance. In 1892 a further act of parliament was passed extending business to outside the United Kingdom and in 1897 a further act added powers for transacting illness, fidelity guarantee burglary and any other kind of insurance except fire, life and marine. The first accident and disease policy was sealed in June 1897 and in 1899 the company began to issue boat and rail insurance tickets as post cards so purchasers could address them to relatives and post them before beginning their journey. In 1900 the first burglary insurance was issued this was followed in 1905 by the first motor insurance and in 1910 plate glass insurance. Following its acquisition by North British & Mercantile that company's burglary and contingency dept was transferred to Railway Passengers in May 1911. In 1912 the company started to offer baggage insurance and in 1914 added livestock insurance. By 1920 the company was calling itself the oldest accident office in the world.
In 1962 the company's Australian business was transferred to Commercial Union Assurance Company of Australia Ltd. and by 1963 was operating as a fire, accident, marine and aviation insurer. In 1964 the company's business in the United States was transferred to Mercantile Insurance Company of America a wholly owned subsidiary of North British & Mercantile. In 1965 the company's South African business was transferred to Commercial Union Assurance Company of South Africa Ltd. and it no longer undertook marine and aviation insurance. In 1966 its business in Ireland was transferred to Hibernian Insurance Company Ltd. From 1971 the company's remaining business, fire and accident, was wholly re-insured with Commercial Union.
Staff/ officials
Directors (1849)
John Dean Paul
George Harrison
Humphrey Brown
James Clay
George Clive
Samuel Whitfield Daukes
Harvie Morton Farquhar
Alexander Greig
The Hon. Arthur Kinnaird.
Secretary
Alexander Beattie (1849 - 1852)
William John Vian (1852 - 1890)
Alfred Vian (1890 - 1911) brother of WJ Vian
Arthur Worley (1911 - 1914) (manager from 1912 ) later Sir
Francis Leonard Harding (1914 - 1926)
Mr Cansdale (1926 - 1944)
H V Britten (1945 - 1949)
F Hayter Cox (1949 - 1957)
W Trotter (1957 - 1959)
C W Lowndes (1959 - 1964)
H T Frost (1964 - 1971) (from 1965 manager)
D R Cobden (1971 - 1977)
G T Spratt (1977 - 1982 at least)
Manager (title first given 1912)
Arthur Worley (1912 - 1936) (and secretary until 1914) later Sir
R G Knowles (1936 - 1944)
H C Wintle (1945 - 1949)
H V Britten (1949 - 1959)
W Trotter (1959 - 1965)
H T Frost (1965 - 1971) (also secretary) after this date manager no longer listed
Head office premises - London
3, Old Broad Street (1849 - 1860)
64, Cornhill (1860 - 1908, 1910 - 1966) from 1903 also lease first floor of 62/3 Cornhill
81 Cornhill (1908 - 1910) (while 61 - 64 rebuilt)
Newland Park Chalfont St Giles Bucks. (1939 - 1945) (war time evacuated head office)
24, Cornhill (1966 - 1969)
St Helens, 1 Undershaft (1969 -2005)
Home branches and agencies
Majority of business through railway booking clerks who sold insurance with the railway tickets.
Cambridge 1849 (agency)
Regent Street, London (1863) first branch
West end, London (1888)
Branch network only really established under North British & Mercantile
Overseas branches and agencies
Dublin, Ireland (1850)
Paris, France (1852)
Amsterdam, Netherlands (1883)
Bombay, India (1892)
South Africa (1901)
Montreal, Canada (1902)
Calcutta, India (by 1912)
Australia (by 1912)
Peru (by 1912)
Austria (by 1912)
Gothenburg, Sweden (1920)
Shanghai, China (1924)
Published History
The Oldest Accident Office in the World being the story of the Railway Passengers Assurance Company 1849 - 1949, by F Hayter Cox (Fanfare Press, London, 1949)
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