History Snapshots
Modern and heritage mix in Coat of Arms
Alongside the historic artefacts on display at the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Lombard Street offices, there…
Protecting the public through general insurance
Insurance plays as pivotal a role in society in the twenty-first century as it did when Winston Churchill gave his famous “upon the door of every cottage and the blotting book of every public man” speech in 1909.
What's behind our brand?
We have chosen to make a greater feature of our heritage in our new logo, because we believe the principles by which we were established and the history of how we have consistently delivered against them lends credibility and relevance to us and our members.
Interactive timeline of women in insurance
As part of the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Insuring Women’s Future’s initiative, we have produced an interactive timeline showcasing women’s progress through the history of risk.
The Fire Mark Circle and the Chartered Insurance Institute
On the 28th of June 1934 ‘The Hall’ at 20 Aldermanbury was officially opened by King George V, accompanied by Queen Mary. Writing about the building in his book Sixty Years, H. A. L. Cockerell, Secretary (CEO) of the Chartered Insurance Institute, proffered the following:
The CII's founding fathers: Sir Frederick William Pascoe Rutter 1859-1949
Frederick William Pascoe Rutter came from a poor family in Liverpool and his education at Liverpool College was funded entirely through scholarships. Anticipating that he would not be able to attain scholarships to pursue a university education he left school at 14 to start work at the London & Lancashire Insurance Company as an apprentice.
What is a Royal Charter?
Royal Charters, granted by the sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council, are the oldest form of incorporation in the UK.[1] The Privy, or ‘private’, Council is a formal body usually made up of senior politicians from the House of Commons or the House of Lords, which advises the monarch on government business that falls outside that of the departmental ministers, including issuing Orders of Council, which regulate public institutions and Royal Charters.
A bold step forward - The history of the Insurance Hall
n 1919, F W P Rutter (the 1910-1911 president of what was then The Insurance Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) gave a lecture to the Insurance Institute of London, entitled: ‘The Chartered Insurance Institute: Its right to work’, in which he laid out his vision for what he hoped the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) could become.
Myth and magic Historic insurance emblems
To mark the launch of the Chartered Insurance Institute’s new logo, Genevieve Adeline is delving into our historical collection to look at some of the rich symbolism that the insurance industry has utilised in its branding over the centuries.
Women in the office of yesteryear
Since the 1870s until well into the 20th century, women were employed exclusively in clerical roles of repetitive nature such as copying letters and filling in forms. Male clerks initially feared for their jobs, but as the Director of The Prudential put it in 1874, three years after the first female clerks were employed: “[female clerks] would not in any way prevent a fair development of male clerks. There had been an unusually large number of male clerks appointed last year, and the lady clerks were doing a class of work that they could not get satisfactorily done by the male clerks” (Anderson, 1989).
The feminisation of the insurance office during the 19th century
During the first half of the 19th century the insurance office was an exclusively male territory and there are a few accounts of widows who carried on running family businesses after the death of their husbands. The earliest known female agent was Ms Barnes, who in 1822 was appointed by the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society to take over her late husband’s business. These women were an absolute exception and unfortunately their stories were largely undocumented.
