Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling

309 Pages·2004·25.175 MB·English

by  Lewis Baston

•
1e
The Life of Reginald Maudling
LEWIS BASTON
SUTTON PUBLISHING
First published in the United Kingdom in 2004 by
Sutton Publishing Limited · Phoenix Mill
Thrupp · Stroud · Gloucestershire · GLS 2BU
Copyright © Lewis Baston, 2004
CONTENTS
All rights ed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
f}ii~ transmitted, in any form. or by any means. electronic,
mec ying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the ""' right holder.
pj
List of Illustrations vii
erted the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Preface viii
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Abbreviations xv
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-7509-2924-3 '22<i~°t010 Prologue: The Maudlings and the Pearsons 1
1. 'From quiet homes and first beginning', 1917-1937 7
2. Betrothal and the Bar, 1935-1940 22
3. 'Conservatives and control', 194 0-19 4 5 3 3
4. Churchill's Pink Pansy: Conservative Research, 1945-1949 47
5. A Brief Stay on the Backbenches, 1950-1952 71
6. 'The first dimpled child of Butskellism', 1952-1955 87
7. Minister of Supply, 1955-1957 103
8. Mini-Minister of Everything, 19 5 7-19 5 9 118
9. Trading Up, 1959-1961 136
10. The Maudling Cement Mixer, 1961-1962 152
11. 'Stop dawdling, Maudling': Chancellor of the Exchequer,
1962-1963 172
12. Blackpool out of Season, 1963 199
13. 'Sorry, old cock': The Maudling Boom, 1963-1964 216
Typeset in 10.5/13pt Photina MT. 14. After the Experiment, October 1964-July 1965 238
Typesetting and origination by
15. The Turning Point, July 1965 253
Sutton Publishing Limited.
Printed and bound in England by
16. Blurring the Boundaries, July 1965-February 1967 264
J.H. Haynes & Co. Ltd, Sparkford.
CONTENTS
vi
282
17. Death of an Idealist, 19 6 7
18. 'Whatever you arrange, Reggie, will be alright by me', 1968 304
327
19. 'A little pot of money', 1969-1970
20. 'A bloody awful country': Northern Ireland, 1970-1972 356 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
390
21. Essendon Man, 19 70-19 72
22. 'Not for criticism or investigation', 1970-1972 414
430 1. Anthony Eden visits Reggie's campaign headquarters in Barnet, 1950.
2 3. Temporary Exile, 19 72-19 7 3
2. Reggie as a keen young junior minister, 1952.
448
24. Reginald's not there! 1974 3. Beryl and Reginald Maudling, c. 1950.
4. The Maudling family, 19 5 9.
25. A Shadow of a Minister, 1975-1976 467
5. Beryl and Reggie leaving their home at Chester Street, April 1963.
26. Out to the Undiscovered Ends, 1976-1979 484 6. Reggie playing monop0ly with William and Edward before the 19 64
Budget.
506
2 7. The Tragedy of our Times 7. Reggie - and sterling - under strain, 19 64.
523 8. Reggie in ebullient mood at a Conservative press conference, 1964.
Notes
9. Reggie during the 1963 leadership contest.
Bibliography 580 10. Maudling and Macleod, 1961.
11. Reggie promoting the British motor industry, 19 60.
590
Index
12. Martin and Caroline Maudling, 1964.
13. Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi on a visit to London in the late 1960s.
14. Reggie wine tasting at the Savoy, 1971.
15. Beryl hits the jackpot, 1967.
16. Bewildered in Belfast, 19 70.
17. John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson.
18. Maudling, uncomfortable as Thatcher's Shadow Foreign Secretary,
1975.
19. Beryl and Reggie, together through all adversity, 1974.
PREFACE ix
have displayed faith and a certain amount of bravery in publishing the book.
I owe Simon (ably assisted by Claire Scott) and Christopher Feeney of Sutton
many thanks. At the other end of this long road, my thanks to Hilary
Walford for shepherding Reggie through the production process, and Mary
Worthington for her skilful copy-editing. Niri Shan and Nicky Goodey of
Taylor Wessing had the no doubt intriguing task of offering their legal advice.
PREFACE
While conducting my research I have found out why such an apparently
promising subject has not had a biography, while other more obscure
politicians of the same era have been written up. It helps a lot if one's subject
has a collection of papers, catalogued and archived by a professional
I first became interested in Reginald Maudling in early 1999, when I was archivist, available for consultation. Some politicians kept everything, neatly
asked to write a book t~ a~comp.any a Ch~nnel 4 television series called filed, and as a result have disproportionate influence on the historical record.
... Sleaze. It was a commission with a rapid turnaround (although for Reggie Maudling's papers are held at Churchill College, Cambridge, and are
various reasons the book itself did not appear for nearly a year), and in still closed even with an authorisation letter from the family. The archivist
researching it I read a lot of biographies of postwar politicians who had fallen assured me that these were solely constituency casework from Barnet, not
from grace in one way or another. I was puzzled that nobody had written a general political papers, and thus of limited interest even if I could gain
life of Maudling, who after all was the most senior British politician to be access to them before the year 2079. If they are indeed constituency
felled by scandal in the twentieth century. Although overshadowed in most correspondence from the 19 70s, they should be renamed the Arthur
perceptions of Maudling, I also discovered that he was the first minister to Fawcett-Viv Walker papers, as Reggie was not the most diligent of
admit that Britain's future role was as a top second-division nation; the Tory constituency MPs during the period. There are lots of boxes of papers there,
Chancellor whose budget was popular with the trade unions; the Home frustratingly locked up. There are apparently no other sets of Maudling
Secretary on whose watch the Northern Ireland Troubles got out of control; papers, although I was told a most intriguing tale at one point about a
the Tory who pondered the massive extension of state control of the economy mechanical digger and a hole in the ground somewhere in Hertfordshire.
and the permissive society in the 19 70s. Everyone who knew him said what To add to the problem of no accessible papers, Reggie was not much 'of a
good company he was, what a nice man: an intelligent, decent, gentle letter-writer or diarist. His stationery was an unusual, small size that
character who believed in consensus. There was also a darker view of deliberately encouraged brevity of expression. There are only a couple of
Maudling. The journalists covering the Poulson affair found him a devious ministerial appointments diaries. He was rather disorganised in his approach
adversary and believed that behind his bonhomie lay, to put it bluntly, a to filing, and he lived in and for the moment. There is remarkably little that
greedy criminal. gives much of an insight into Maudling's personality in the archives. His
When I became serious about this project I contacted Caroline Maudling, contemporaries when they came to write their memoirs rather shied away
Reggie's daughter, and I also sent her an early version of a proposal for the from grappling with the real, problematic Reggie and either ignored him or
book. It was a distressing business for her, particularly at a time when she told well-polished stories. For such a large, heavy man, he walked lightly
was dealing with the tragic death of her brother William. Caroline Maudling through the historical record.
does not believe that it is her place to give or withhold 'official' status, but she I am not a Conservative, which in writing a life of Maudling I tend to
has helped considerably and given me access to other family members and regard as being a positive attribute. Some very good political biographies
personal friends. I am most grateful to her. I also respect and admire her. She have been written by biographers who support different parties from their
has inherited her father's charm, wit and generosity of spirit. She will not like subject - I think here of Anthony Howard's R.A. Butler, or Michael
everything in this book, but I hope that she and others will accept that I have McManus's Jo Grimond. The late, great Lord Jenkins wrote a workmanlike
always tried to be fair to him and to write a rounded, balanced account. Attlee and splendid books on Gladstone, Asquith and Churchill, but then his
My relationship with the Maudling family was the least of my problems. It wide experience of politics gave him a special authority in writing across
seemed obvious to me that he was an interesting subject, but this appeared to party lines. The contemporary Conservative Party has, with one or two
be a minority opinion. My literary agent, Simon Trewin (successively of Sheil, exceptions such as - greatly to his credit - Kenneth Clarke, given up
Land and Peters, Fraser and Dunlop), believed in it even when I had become a honouring Reggie Maudling. My attempt to claim Maudling as a distant
bit dispirited, and eventually came to agreement in 2002 with Sutton, who ancestor of New Labour will probably please nobody. I hope it is taken as a
x PREFACE PREFACE xi
serious comment; Hegelians like Maudling and the advocates of the Third and his colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Records Management
Way adopt, chameleon-like, the colours of their surroundings. Maudling Department in the closing stages is greatly appreciated.
may be to the left of Blair, but this is more a function of the political Particular thanks to the National Archives (formerly Public Record Office)
climates in which they operated rather than revealing any deep ideological of the United Kingdom, among whose professional and unfailingly helpful
distinction between them. staff I have spent much time, and their equivalents at the National Archives
I have to say a few words about the attitude of the Conservative Party. The of Ireland in Dublin, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in
Conservative Party nationally has taken pains to make their records accessible Belfast and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the
to contemporary historians through the Conservative Party Archive at the United States. Stephen Twigge and Mark Jarvis were particularly helpful in
Bodleian Library in Oxford, and for this anyone writing recent political the later stages of the book.
history should be grateful. I appreciate the help of their archivists and Some individuals have helped by granting me access to various
officials. I would also like to thank members of the Feltham and Heston documents, including photographs: Sir Clive Bossom, David Butler, Trudi
Conservative Association for their efforts, largely fruitless but still appreciated, Fawcett Kotrosa, Murray Martin, Caroline Maudling, Michael Melville,
at tracing Reggie's first election campaign in 1945. Individual members of Michael Rice and Richard Stott in particular. Thank you to Denys Blakeway
the Chipping Barnet Conservative Association have been a great help. Some and Leonie Jameson for access to transcripts of interviews for the television
Conservative associations have been very unhelpful. Perhaps they feel justified programme Sleaze, which they made in 1999 and for which I published a
in their paranoia on seeing what I have written, but all they did was to companion book.
deprive me of a few witnesses and papers that would have probably put For permission to reproduce copyright material I am grateful to the above
Reggie in a positive light. I am glad that the national party, and many senior named persons and institutions. Some extra specific acknowledgement is due
figures, took a different attitude. They probably also have enough perspective to the policy of the Controller of The Stationery Office (TSO) in relation to
to realise that, although there is much they will not like, the book is papers held in the National Archives and the West Yorkshire Archives
balanced, even sympathetic. Service, and to the copyright department of Pan Macmillan regarding the
Thank you to all the librarians and archivists who helped with the book by rights to Reginald Maudling's Memoirs published by Sidgwick & Jackson in
doing their professional jobs, particularly those at the British Library, the LSE 1978. I gladly acknowledge the help of Frances Cairncross, who gave her
Library (BLPES), Kingston University Library, the Library of Congress and the permission to quote from the unpublished diaries of her father Sir Alec
public libraries of the City of London, the boroughs of Barnet, Bromley, Cairncross. The Macmillan Trustees gave permission for several quotations
Camden, Hackney, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea, Southwark and from Harold Macmillan's diaries, and Sheridan Westlake of Conservative
Westminster, and the counties of Carmarthenshire, East Sussex and Central Office cleared the quotations from the Party's papers. Lord Weatherill
Hertfordshire. The internet-based services of LEXIS-NEXIS, J-STOR and the kindly gave his permission to quote from Whips' Office papers. For
Google search engine are indispensable research tools, so thank you to their photographs, I would like to thank Trudi Fawcett Kotrosa, the Press
authors wherever they may be. Association, Associated Press and Hulton Getty. If I have inadvertently failed
The specialist and private collections consulted include those at Merchant to trace or credit any copyright holders for material going beyond the 'fair
Taylors' School (Geoffrey Brown), OMT Society (Jeremy Birch), Merton College dealing' rule, I can only offer sincere apologies and promise to make amends
Oxford (Michael Stansfield), Oxford Union Society, Middle Temple Library in any future edition of this book.
(Lesley Whitelaw), Royal Academy of Dance (Eleanor Jack), Churchill College Many people have given interviews, of varying length from a short phone
Cambridge (Allen Packwood and Andrew Riley in particular), the Bodleian call to several hours of intense conversation. Thanks above all to Caroline
Library (Jill Spelman), British Newspaper Library, National Museum of Labour Maudling, Edward Maudling and Melissa Maudling for their help. I am
History (Stephen Byrd), Linen Hall Library (Yvonne Murphy), University of grateful to everyone who helped with their reminiscences of Reginald
Kent at Canterbury (Sue Crabtree), Birmingham University Library (Chris Maudling, including Leo Abse, Lord Allen of Abbeydale, Lord Baker of
Penney), University of Leeds Library, Hull University Library, London Darking, Ann Brum, David Butler, Sir Peter Carey, Lord Carlisle of Bucklow,
Metropolitan Archive, Family History Centre, Barnet Museum, University of Lord Carr of Hadley, Lord Carrington, Tom Caulcott, Sir Sydney Chapman,
Tulsa Library (Gina Minks), Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Georgetown Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, Peter Duplock, Raymond Fitzwalter, the late
(Dudley Kissoore), University College London Archives section, Glasgow Sir Sandy Glen, Sir Philip Goodhart, David Graham, Joe Haines, James Haw,
University Archives Service, Trinity College Cambridge and the West Maurice Hayes, Anthony Howard, Jack Howard-Drake, Sir Tim Kitson, Trudi
Yorkshire Archives Service at Wakefield. The assistance of Andrew Brown Fawcett Kotrosa, Charles Longbottom, John Marshall, Murray Martin,
xii PREFACE PREFACE xiii
Michael McManus, Stratton Mills, Sir Derek Mitchell, Dennis Nicholson, particularly helpful, as was Kingston's Vice-Chancellor Peter Scott. Thank you
Lord Parkinson, Tony Poulter (and the officers of Alpha Delta Plus who also to Sue Simms and her colleagues for their efficiency. Long-term research
produce their website), Michael Rice, Andrew Roth, Alex Saville, Daphne is becoming increasingly difficult to organise in British higher education.
Seillier, Robert Shepherd, Corinne Souza, Mr Stone, Richard Stott, Viv Walker What research does go on is to the credit of grant-giving foundations,
and Ken Williams. Several others have helped on condition of anonymity, and including the Nuffield Foundation. I received a grant of a little under £5,000
I am equally grateful to them - particularly those with whom I came into in 2002, for which I would like to express thanks. It helped with research
contact late in the process. If there is anyone I have neglected to thank for costs, including many visits to archives, including those in Washington, DC,
their help, please forgive this accidental discourtesy. I would have liked to do the discovery of the Arthur Fawcett diary in Baltimore on the same trip, and
more interviews, and there are a few cases in which either it did not prove with the employment of Alice Ceresole as my researcher for a few months in
possible to arrange a meeting for whatever reason, or when pressure of time 2003. I would also like to thank Ken Ritchie and colleagues at the Electoral
has meant that I did not talk to people who had expressed their willingness to Reform Society for their patience concerning my outside interests. I would
do so. My apologies to these people as well. also like to express my gratitude and respect for David Butler and Anthony
A few have refused. I had a peremptory, but not wholly uninteresting, letter Seldon, who have taught me so much about politics and historical writing.
from Sir Edward Heath, and a charming letter from Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, I am grateful to several individuals for answers to particular questions,
each of whom answered some questions I had put. It is an elder statesman's advice on earlier drafts and various suggestions about writing the book: my
prerogative to respond to requests as he wishes. I also had an exchange of agent Simon Trewin and editor Christopher Feeney. Vic Baston, Jill Baston
correspondence with the late Sir Frederic Bennett, in which he advised me to (who took a particular interest in Beryl Laverick's acting career), Hannah
wait until the publication of his memoirs, and it is to my great regret that I Nicholson, Ros Baston, Donna Sharpe, the late Sir Alexander Glen, Karen
did not have the opportunity to explore his point of view. George Wilson, who Baston, Thomas Gijswijt, Alice Ceresole, Peter Neumann, Brian Brivati,
was John Paulson's administrator in 1968-70 and returned to the civil Sir Peter Carey and John Marshall read bits and commented on them. Thanks
service in 1970, also refused. Muir Hunter, QC, understandably, was not also to Karen for the bibliography. Michael Crick, an avowed 'early life'
willing to talk about the Poulson affair, although at long last some of the enthusiast in his own work, inspired me to take Reggie's early career
results of his enquiries can see the light. My descriptions of his thinking are seriously, I think with good results. Michael Rice, Andrew Roth and Leo Abse
inferred from the transcripts of the bankruptcy hearings rather than any all helped with psychological insights. Robert Shepherd, biographer of the
interview with him. other two musketeers of the Conservative Parliamentary Secretariat, Macleod
Very late on in this project, in July 2003, the Lord Chancellor's Department and Powell, decided that he would not write a life of Maudling - but talked to
released forty-two case files from the Poulson prosecutions at Leeds Crown me about him several times. He has written Reggie's new Dictionary of
Court in 19 7 3-4. These files contained an astonishing mass of detail, including National Biography entry, to replace Edward Boyle's rather over-indulgent
many Poulson papers seized during the bankruptcy and several private 19 81 effort.
examinations in bankruptcy which cast new light on the entire affair. There Writing Reggie has imposed great demands. He was a man of many parts,
may be more to come in the future. One Poulson case file G291/102) has been a quick intellect who grasped an astonishing array of arcane and detailed
closed for 100 years, and a file referred to during the bankruptcy hearings in subjects as his life went on. I have scrambled in his wake, probably in many
19 72 entitled 'Correspondence mainly between debtor and the Right cases less sure-footedly. As well as the obvious intellectual and financial
Honourable Reginald Maudling between 1st December 1966, to 2 July 1970' demands, it has been occasionally quite draining emotionally. I have spent
has not surfaced. Reading the files that have been released, and some papers in countless hours agonising over what I should say about him, what is fair,
the West Yorkshire archives in Wakefield, has cast a new and very harsh light what is supported by the evidence. I have generally opted for candour.
on Reginald Maudling's behaviour. When I saw the case files in September . When something is undeniable, but unpleasantly true, I have written it.
2003 I was forced to reassess some of the judgements I had made about When the evidence points towards a conclusion, without quite getting
Maudling's conduct and character, although I have still tried hard to there, I hope I have indicated where it stops. There is more 'perhaps' in this
understand rather than merely condemn. But to read a letter Maudling sent book than in many such books; Reggie was that sort of man, and I am that
while Home Secretary to a company director, saying that '£3,000 will meet all sort of writer. I can't elevate speculation into fact, or reconstruct dialogue
my cash requirements for the foreseeable future' was still a shock to the system. wholesale, but then I can't just abandon the trail either. I trust the readers
For most of the period I have been writing Reggie, I have been on the staff are capable of making their own judgements about things. I thought hard,
of Kingston University. My colleagues Ilaria Favretto and Brian Brivati were and I hope fairly.
xiv PREFACE
I never met Reggie Maudling, and I have harsh things to say about certain
aspects of his behaviour, but I am confident that I would have liked him. One
of the best moments, although itself tinged with sadness, I have had in the
writing of the book was when I showed Sir Sandy Glen, a friend of Reggie's
for whom I have enormous admiration, a draft version of what has become
Chapters 2 and 3. I was honoured that he recognised his old friend in what I ABBREVIATIONS
had written. Likewise, Ken Williams - one of life's truly original characters
Reggie and I have both got drunk and talked about big ideas with - felt that
Reggie was in a funny way fortunate to have me on the case, as I had
understood something about him. Reggie himself, in the final page of the
APG active, permanent and guaranteed (Northern Ireland)
epilogue of his memoirs, comments 'Tout expliquer, c'est tout detruire'. I
BCCI Bank of Credit and Commerce International
prefer Madame de Stael's original version of 'Tout expliquer, c'est tout
BLPES British Library of Political and Economic Science
pardonner'. While I am sure there is still much that one does not know, and
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
cannot know, to understand Maudling is I hope to forgive more than to
CP Construction Promotion (Poulson)
destroy.
CPA Conservative Party Archives
Finally, some deeper debts. My girlfriend (May 2001), fiancee (October
CPRS Central Policy Review Staff
2002) and wife (August 2003), Hannah Nicholson, has been a (sometimes
CPS Conservative Parliamentary Secretariat
brisk) voice of common sense, a support and a distraction. A writer needs
CRD Conservative Research Department
these. Reggie and Beryl were married, devotedly, for nearly forty years, and I
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
hope that in this they can be an example. Reggie's parents are less inspiring.
ECGD Export Credit Guarantee Department
I am grateful that my mother has so little in common with Elsie Maudling,
ECSC European Coal and Steel Community
and that my father's own fine qualities include some he shares with R.G. -
EEC European Economic Community
compassion, calmness, integrity and optimism. I dedicate this book to Vic and
EFTA European Free Trade Association
Jill Baston.
EPU European Payments Union
Lewis Baston
ERM Exchange Rate Mechanism
January 2004
ESRC Economic and Social Research Council
FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office
PTA Free Trade Area
GLC Greater London Council
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
HCSC House of Commons Select Committee
IBA Independent Broadcasting Authority
IMF International Monetary Fund
IOS Investors Overseas Services
IPD Inter Planning and Design (Poulson successor)
IRA Irish Republican Army
ITCS International Technical and Constructional Services (Poulson)
JCR Junior Common Room
KADU Kenyan African Democratic Union
KANU Kenya African National Union
Memoirs Reginald Maudling, Memoirs (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 19 78)
NARA National Archives and Records Administration (USA)
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
xvi ABBREVIATIONS
NEDC National Economic Development Committee (Neddy)
NIC National Incomes Commission (Nicky)
NICRA Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association Prologue
NUM National Union of Mineworkers
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OEEC Organisation for European Economic Cooperation THE MAUDLINGS AND THE
OPS Obscene Publications Squad
OSB Open System Building company (Poulson) PEARSONS
PESC Public Expenditure Survey Committee
PPS Parliamentary Private Secretary
QPM Questions of Procedure for Ministers
REFA Real Estate Fund of America
R eginald George Maudling was an unusual character in his chosen
RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects
profession. He had .a puckish .sense of ~umour, a soci~l conscience and
RPM Resale Price Maintenance
a restless interest m new thmgs, be it modern architecture or novel
RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary
entrepreneurial ways of doing business. He had a talent for explaining
SDLP Social Democratic and Labour Party (Northern Ireland)
complicated subjects in terms that people could easily understand, but he
SDR Special Drawing Right
quickly became bored by formality and routine. His career was briefly
SIR Shipping Industrial Holdings
disrupted by involvement in a firm with a prestigious board of directors,
UAE United Arab Emirates
which was not all that it seemed. He married a woman who was acutely
UDA Ulster Defence Association
ambitious and in constant need of money. And he had a son, who shared
UDI Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)
more than just his name, who nearly became Prime Minister.
UVF Ulster Volunteer Force
Despite being so much his father's son, Reggie Maudling had remarkably
little to say about his family in later life. Sir Sandy Glen, who became close to
him in the mid-19 50s, does not remember him ever talking about his parents
beyond mentioning the bare fact that his father was an actuary and had a
firm of his own.1 The Maudling family itself lacks much of an oral tradition,
and the current generation do not know much about their family history.2
Reggie gave little away in his Memoirs. There was nothing personal in his
description of his origins, which reads more like a sociological analysis of the
mores of the upper middle class: 'narrow, closed, and class-conscious in both
directions, up and down. But it had high standards of integrity, and a deep
belief in patriotism, in honest hard work, and in the virtues of saving. No
doubt it was in many ways intolerant, and could be described as complacent.'3
This dispassionate, generalised version of his childhood failed to reveal what
Reggie inherited from his family background. Thanks to R.G.'s4 hard work, he
and his family had a good standard of living. Reggie's earliest memories were
of a large house with a tennis court and a full-time maid, but not of love. His
mother was cold; his father was distant despite his good humour. Reggie's
outward personality was very similar to that of his jovial father, a legacy he
embraced, but his mother's snobbery and intolerance inflicted deeper wounds.
The Maudlings may have been complacently well off, but his mother Elsie was
anxiously aware of her side of the family's far from grand provincial origins,
and the failure of her father's dreams of big business success.
2 REGGIE THE MAUDLINGS AND THE PEARSONS 3
Reggie Maudling was a fourth-generation Londoner and a third-generation newly formed insurance company called Omnium, which, as its name
City professional on his father's side. The Maudlings were middle-class dwellers suggests, intended to deal in all forms of insurance business. It was launched
in the big city, lacking in traditions of blue blood and manual labour, who felt with something of a splash in October 1909 with an illustrious board of
their identity was English without prefix or suffix denoting class or region. Their directors including the Earl of Chichester and Prince Francis of Teck. 8
jobs - in the law, the City and politics - were all London occupations. Reggie's Omnium soon ran into difficulties. It was one of the biggest cases in a spate
branch of the family is a story of north London and the City of London for the of insurance company failures in the early 1910s that provided the backdrop
most part; there is another branch of the family in County Durham but the two for Forster's Howard's End. General insurance was a crowded market and a
are not closely connected. There are two main theories about the distant origins contemporary analysis thought that for success 'a modest beginning, great
of the surname. One is that it is a derivation of 'Maud' originating in Central patience in the early years, and a low ratio of expenses are absolutely
Europe ('-ling' is a German diminutive form), and that, way back, the necessary'.9 Omnium had none of these features, displaying grand ambitions
Maudlings might have been Jewish. The other is that it comes from 'Magdalen', and big spending, with well over £10,000 on 'initial expenses' and over
meaning 'woman from Magdala', suggesting that, way back, the Maudlings £1,000 in each category of 'general expenses' and 'office furniture and
might have been Palestinians (or possibly come from a 'Magdalen' home for fittings' out of its initial capital of £100,000.10
fallen women).s Reggie himself showed little sign of knowing or caring; he was Omnium closed down in April 1912 and R.G. had the distinction of being
more concerned about where he was going than whence he came. the only head of a life insurance business never to have paid out on a claim.
Reggie's grandfather was George Terry Maudling, who was born in Most of the business was sold on to the United London & Scottish group,
Woolwich in November 1855. George moved north of the river, working as a which in turn went bust a couple of months later. In 1913 Conservative MP
solicitor's clerk in the City and marrying Ellenor Price in 18 81. George John Norton Griffiths asked a question in the Commons about the Omnium
gradually worked his way up from his position as clerk, taking his law affair, alleging that 'severe losses have been incurred by tradesmen, working
examinations in 18 9 8 and becoming a partner in the City firm of Morley, men, and other policy holders, who are unable to obtain payment of losses
Shireff & Co., based at Old Broad Street, in 1919. George's parents were insured against or return of premiums paid'. The government replied that
William Maudling, a Woolwich iron founder, and his wife Elizabeth who lived because Omnium had been put into voluntary liquidation the Board of Trade
to the age of 87. In the family's history Reggie was from the third comfortable had no jurisdiction to launch an inquiry.11 There was a distinct whiff of
generation; George Terry carried them from the working to upper middle class malpractice about Omnium, but at that time there was little that could be
and after him the Maudlings belonged to the respectable middle class of City done.
professional services which had grown up to service the capital city of the Maudling's own part in the collapse seems innocent. The life business was
Empire. George's son, Reginald George, was born on 20 September 1882, and disposed of separately from the rest of the company; it was transferred to the
went to Merchant Taylors' School in the City from 1894 to 1900, where he London & Lancashire, his former employers and a more substantial company
was noted as a cricketer. After he left school he worked as a clerk for the than United London & Scottish. Maudling's Omnium venture came to
6
London & Lancashire insurance company; one of the attractions of this work nothing, but he escaped with his reputation intact, or even enhanced because
was apparently that he expected to be able to get off easily to play games.7 of his insistence that the life business was put on a secure footing. He was
R.G. was bright and ambitious, and studied for qualifications of his own while soon back in business thanks to the intervention of Sir Alfred Watson, the
at the firm, becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1909. doyen of the actuarial profession. Watson was the senior partner in the oldest
The role of an actuary is essentially to advise insurers about the statistical - and for a long time the only - firm of consulting actuaries, R. Watson &
complexities of risk that underlie insurance, and to forecast financial returns. Co., who were free to take on business independently rather than working in
A good actuary has to be a good mathematician with a strong grasp of house for an insurance frrm. Watson recalled that Maudling was the only
statistics, while also having a sense of the way in which real life disrupts the candidate who had answered correctly a question he had composed in an
orderly world of risk tables. Despite their other similarities, R.G., the exam paper, and was impressed by his conduct in the Omnium affair. He
professionally cautious calculator of risks, had a different nature from his made R.G. a junior partner, and then quickly left the firm on his appointment
son, whose career was destroyed by careless risk-taking. as the first ever Government Actuary, a post created because of the Liberal
The actuarial profession has long been the butt of jokes along the lines government's National Insurance Act passed in 1911. In 1912, at the age of
that it is for people who can't stand the excitement of accountancy, but 30, R.G. Maudling had one of the highest positions in his profession.
R.G. Maudling, at least, had an interesting career. Not long after he left R.G. shared with his son Reggie many of his more endearing and
London & Lancashire, he was appointed head of the Life Department at a impressive qualities. He lacked pomposity: 'he had an amusing dislike for
4 REGGIE THE.MAUDLINGS AND THE PEARSONS 5
formal conferences and when they became unduly irritating to him he would Charles Pearson owned a printing works on Mansell Street in Aldgate,
keep up a running fire of funny asides.'12 A reputation as a wit may be more where the City of London ran up against the East End; he would claim that it
easily acquired among actuaries than other professions, but he was certainly was in the City while it was actually a few yards inside the borough of
one of its freer spirits.13 He also had a gift for turning the dry technicalities of Stepney. Wherever it was, it was an impressive building which signalled to all
his work into plain language and working well with clients. The Watson firm wh~ saw it that 'Chas. Pearson & Son Printer and Manufacturing Stationer'
grew steadily during Maudling's control and further partners were taken on. had arrived. After the war, in 19 21, the Pearson firm had two branch offices
R.G. also contributed to the work of the Institute of Actuaries as a senior in the City proper and described its work as 'wholesale, export,
Fellow, serving on the executive and writing an important article in its manufacturing and retail stationers, commercial and art printers, die sinkers
journal about sickness compensation in the mining industry in 1929.14 His and engravers and sample bag manufacturers' .18
wider interests were apparent in his election as a member of the Royal The Pearsons lived in Stoke Newington, the other side of Finsbury Park
Economic Society in 19 2 31s and the Royal Statistical Society in 19 2 8 .16 from Crouch Hill. The small borough consisted of solidly middle-class, even a
In the early 19 2 Os R.G. established an entrepreneurial offshoot, little snobbish and exclusive, areas of north London, but even so it was not
Commercial Calculating Ltd, which worked from the same offices in the Millionaire's Row. Charles Pearson did not manage the next step up and make
Temple. Commercial Calculating offered the statistical and mathematical the big time as a captain of industry. Pearson's business boasted an imposing
expertise to do bulk and specialist number-crunching, outside actuarial work fai;ade but it somehow failed to generate much in the way of profit for its
as such, to firms who would pay for it. The ventures prospered and in 19 2 7 founder. It did not grow much more after the early 19 2 Os and from the
the firms moved into a prestigious headquarters at Empire House, a newly 1930s onwards it declined. Pearson himself retired in poor health and lived in
built office block in St Martin-le-Grand on the western edge of the City of modest suburban comfort in the same North Finchley as his daughter at the
London, opposite the imposing Telephone Exchange. Empire House was not time Reggie was born. He died of lung cancer in December 19 2 8 and left a
one of the best examples of a 1920s office block, with a clumsily designed relatively meagre £7,982 in his will. His widow Annie had enough to live
interior, but it is still imbued with the flavour of its times.17 R.G. Maudling reasonably well, but she did not leave much either when she died in March
was a devotee of modern architecture, as demonstrated by his move into 1941 in a coal gas poisoning accident.
Empire House and his choice in the late 1930s to buy two newly built flats in R.G. Maudling was a suitable husband for the Pearsons' daughter, a
modernist blocks at Mandeville Court in West Hampstead and the Art Deco respectable young professional with prospects and a pleasing nature. He lived
Hastings Court development in Worthing. literally around the corner from them in Queen Elizabeth's Walk, his parents'
Though prosperous, R.G. Maudling was a generous man. Reggie had a house in Stoke Newington, and the Maudlings were established members of
scholarship at Merchant Taylors' but his father still paid school fees, which local society - the sort of people who were invited to civic and mayoral
went instead to a 'Maudling fund' to support boys whose fathers had died or banquets. R.G. and Elsie were married on 5 October 1910 at the imposing
run into financial trouble. In the financial arrangements in his 1940 will, R.G. parish church of Stoke Newington, an occasion recorded in the local
insisted that any funds of his not be invested in the mining industry. When he newspaper as one of the district's 'interesting weddings ... The couple were
died in 1953, early in retirement lilm many driven, hard-working men, he left married very quietly. The presents were very numerous and several were of
nearly £71,000 in his will; he would count as a millionaire if his legacy were quite a costly nature.'19 Quiet weddings became something of a family
denominated in the currency of the early 2000s rather than the 1950s. tradition; compared to Reggie's own nuptials, his parents' marriage was
Reggie Maudling's mother, Elizabeth Emilie (usually known as Elsie), was positively showy. The best man was the groom's brother Leonard Hugh
born in Crouch Hill, Homsey in north London, on 15 March 1885, the Maudling.
daughter of Charles Pearson and his wife Annie (nee Cooper). Charles Elsie's character is more elusive at this distance than her husband's. She
Pearson was in the printing trade, an upwardly mobile man originally from was ferociously status-conscious and seems to have been as harsh and cold as
Derby who described himself as a 'stationer' when he married in 1884 and a her husband was jolly, but we only have Reggie's - indirect - word for her
'managing director of a printing company' in 1910. Annie was from authoritarian, smothering attitude to him as a child.20 Like R.G., Elsie
Huddersfield, the daughter of James Cooper, who was alternatively Maudling had unusual preferences in wills, but in contrast to his ethical
'gentleman' and 'general waste dealer' depending on which official document issues with mining she used wills to make personal points. She intervened in
one consults. The Pearsons were managers and businessmen, rather than her mother's arrangements, and at Elsie's 'express request' her benefit from
professionals, and of perhaps noticeable provincial origins and accents in turn Annie's will was restricted to £1,000. What Elsie may have meant by this is
of the century London. open to interpretation. It is possible that she wanted to help her brother keep