Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

1906

Peter Levene, Chairman of Lloyd’s of London at Mihaylo Hall, 2^nd Dec 2010.

Now yesterday, we flew down from San Francisco. San Francisco has a very special place in Lloyd’s history. Four years ago, I was in San Francisco for the events to mark the centenary of the 1906 earthquake. We sponsored the dinner which they held there, and I spoke at that dinner. Now, why was it so special for Lloyd’s?

Well the reason was because in 1906, Lloyd’s business in the United States was just starting to get off the ground. And when the earthquake happened, Lloyd’s had a local agent in San Francisco who saw the destruction, the fire, the mayhem that was going on. And he didn’t know what to do. Most of the insurers were literally, quite physically, running for the hills.

He sent a cable back to London, to his boss — a man who is a Lloyd’s legend, a man called Cuthbert Heath — and he explained what was happening. He said, “What do I do?”

He got back an answer which was 13 words, and this is very much the basis of Lloyd’s business in this country, and it’s retained in our archives. The reply was very simple: “Pay all of our policyholders all of their claims, irrespective of the terms of their policy.”

Now today, I’m sure that we would go along with the first part of that cable, paying all of policyholders all of their claims. ‘Irrespective of the terms of their policy,’ I’m not so sure about. But he did it, and it proved to be the most fantastic investment. Because that ensured that Lloyd’s name, as a very reliable provider of insurance, became legend in the United States.

And for us, if you think about it — this rather bizarre institution which isn’t even a company and which is the only insurance market in the world to have $12.5 billion market every year in the United States — is pretty unusual, and a lot of the credit for that goes to what Cuthbert Heath did in that one event just over 100 years ago in San Francisco.

…

In the same year, a fire in Baltimore caused losses of $90 million, and as I said, the San Francisco earthquake devastated the city, resulting in claims from Lloyd’s alone at that time of $50 million, which in 1906 was a very great deal of money.

Naval cadets, may be on board HMS Powerful, 1906 - 

Front row left to right,

L.E. Ottley, W.S.Gilchrist, L.H.Pelly, E.L.King-Hall, W.Park (killed flying 1912), R.C.Ryan, E.A.Hill

Second row, left to right

 P.G.Turner, G.F. Loftus-Jones, R.Studd, - , F. Blomfield, C. Gardner

Third row, left to right

 H.F.Minchin, G.K.Twiss, T. Lundholm, C.F.Bush, J.Schofield, A.W.Blacker (killed Dardenelles)

Fourth row, left to right

 H.F. Clarke, E.N.Syfret, O.H. Storpe (Storer?) (killed Vanguard), S.D.Grey, J.C. Cowan (killed Jutland)

Fifth row, left to right

 L.F.Richardson (drowned in submarine), C.H.Heath, A.B.Chamberlain (killed Zeebrugge), A.K. Gibson, J.E. Millais (died) 

Naval Cadets from HMS Powerful under canvas at Flemington, Austalia - 1906

Cuthbert Heath, second from right in back in white shirt.

HMS Powerful in dock in Sydney 1906