Norwich Union Life Insurance Company Ltd

Did you know...?

Norwich Union Life's head office, 1922

• In 1823, the company insured then well-known actor and comedian Robert William Elliston.
• In 1842, a life policyholder who was sentenced to transportation to Australia drowned on the voyage out. The policyholder had his policy declared void on the grounds that he had not first secured the company's "licence to travel".
• In 1848, company president Isaac Jermy was murdered on the doorstep of his house, Stanfield Hall, by one of his tenants, James Blomfield Rush. Rush was later hanged and company staff were given the day off to watch the hanging.
• William Palmer, known as the Rugeley Poisoner and the first person in Britain to be tried for murder by strychnine, was insured by the company. Palmer was hanged in 1856.
• Norwich Cathedral first appeared as a company trade mark in 1877. It was used in various forms over the years, and the cathedral spire was an inspiration for part of the new corporate mark following the merger with CGU in 2000.
• Author H Rider Haggard is mentioned in the 1890 report of the directors. Haggard had been present at the annual general meeting of June 24 1891 where he "seconded the proposed vote of thanks with much pleasure, remarked that it was impossible to hear the report without realising that the whole of the affairs of this society were in the most satisfactory condition".
• The company insured Queen Victoria in 1901. The Queen's life was insured by a theatre company which feared that when the country went into mourning following her death their business would suffer because people wouldn't go to the theatre.
• The heating and air conditioning system in the society's head office at 8 Surrey Street, Surrey House, was famously complex. Air was brought in from the west side of the building and passed through a water screen in the basement to cleanse and purify it. In the winter time, the treated air was moved to the front of the building where it was heated and then passed to the marble hall via ducts. It entered the hall via the central font. The ornamental pendant suspended from the ceiling was designed to deflect the air around the hall. The whole process took just 20 minutes. The explanation of the system baffled a young man who joined the office as a junior in the 1930s. The new employee had quite some difficulty believing that the air circulated around the marble hall just because of the pendant. Convinced this couldn't be the case he went out one lunch time to find some dandelion seed heads. He brought back a bunch and thrust them into the up draught of the font. In his own words, "within minutes those seeds were everywhere".
• In the 1950s, the company insured Agatha Christie under her married name Agatha Mallowen.
• During the 1970s, an episode of "Tales of the Unexpected" starring Telly Savalas was filmed in the boardroom of 8 Surrey Street.
• The company insured Freddie Mercury in the 1980s.

Staff and officials

Secretary

General manager

Position created in 1901

Chief general manager

Position created in 1962

Actuary

Directors (1808)

Norwich Union Life prospectus cover, 1908

Norwich Union Life's Glasgow branch staff, 1940

• Starling Day (President)
• John Patteson
• Reverend C J Chapman
• J Herring
• T A Kerrison
• Thomas Strickland
• Richard Dewing
• Thomas Cook
• Thomas M Dennis
• William Shanke
• William Jackson
• Francis Weft
• P L Foster
• James Green
• Alexander Thwaites
• R M Bacon
• James Nolworthy
• F Noverre
• William Bacon
• James Adams
• Hammond Fisk
• William Moore
• James Roper

Home agencies  and branches

Agencies (1808)

Norwich Union Life prospectus, 1898

Norwich Union Life pensions booklet, 1951

• Bedfordshire
• Berkshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Cheshire
• Cumberland
• Derbyshire
• Devonshire
• Durham
• Essex
• Gloucestershire
• Hampshire
• Bedfordshire
• Huntingdonshire
• Kent
• Lancashire
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Monmouthshire
• Norfolk
• Northamptonshire
• Northumberland
• Nottinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• Rutlandshire
• Shropshire
• Somersetshire
• Staffordshire
• Suffolk
• Warwickshire
• Westmoreland
• Wiltshire
• Yorkshire

Home branches

Norwich Union Life calendar cover, 1867

Norwich Union Life advertisement, 1909

• Aberdeen (by 1899)
• Belfast (by 1899)
• Birmingham (by 1899)
• Bristol (by 1899)
• Dundee (by 1899)
• Edinburgh (by 1899)
• Glasgow (by 1899)
• Inverness (by 1899)
• Liverpool (by 1899)
• Manchester (by 1899)
• Newcastle (by 1899)
• Leicester (by 1900)
• Leeds (by 1900)
• Plymouth (by 1901)
• Southampton (by 1902)
• Sunderland (by 1905)
• Reading (by 1905)
• Cardiff (by 1905)
• Cambridge (by 1905)
• Hull (by 1905)
• Northampton (by 1905)
• Sunderland (by 1905)
• Swansea (by 1905)
• Worcester (by 1935)

Overseas agencies

Norwich Union Life prospectus for Turkey, 1910

Norwich Union poster for mortgage insurance, 1960s

Norwich Union Life poster, c1915

• Dublin, Ireland (1816)
• Belgium (1859)
• Sydney, Australia (1866)
• Melbourne, Australia (1870)
• Auckland, New Zealand (1870)
• Christchurch, New Zealand (1872)
• Milan, Italy (1889)
• Gibraltar (1889)
• Rome, Italy (1890) also Turin, Genoa, Naples, Venice, Spezzia
• Argentina (1890)
• Berne, Switzerland (1892)
• Paris, France (1895)
• Transvaal, South Africa (1895)
• Copenhagen, Denmark (1896)
• Amsterdam, Holland (by 1896)
• Toronto, Canada (1899)
• Lisbon, Portugal (1900)
• Cairo, Egypt (1903)
• Zimbabwe (1903)
• Cork, Ireland (by 1905) also Galway
• Bombay, India (1906) also Calcutta
• Karachi, Pakistan (1907)
• Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma) (1908)
• Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (1908)
• Bulgaria (by 1908)
• Greece (by 1908)
• Istanbul, Turkey (by 1914)
• Madrid, Spain (by 1914)
• Nicosia, Cyprus (by 1920)
• Malawi (1944)
• Kenya (1947)
• Bahrain (1950)
• Jamaica (1952)
• Chile (by 1954)
• Lagos, Nigeria (1954)
• Accra, Ghana (1954)
• Valetta, Malta (by 1969)

Published History

Five generations of the Bignold Family 1761 - 1947 and their connection with the Norwich Union by Sir Robert Bignold. B T Batsford Ltd. London, 1948.

Norwich Union: The First 200 years by Jonathan Mantle. James & James Ltd. London, 1997.

In the archives

The Aviva archive contains records relating to the running of the Norwich Union Life Insurance Company between 1808 and 1996. The collection includes annual reports and accounts, general ledgers, board minutes, general minutes, committee minutes, certificates of incorporation, memoranda and articles of association, acts of parliament, deed of settlement, policy registers, annuity registers, journals, referee letters, salary books, photographs, prospectuses, policies, branded promotional material and product literature.