Terry Minahan - The Adventures of Thadeus Burke Vol 1

The Adventures

of

Thadeus Burke

Volume 1

by

Terry Minahan

ISBN 978-1907759-78-9

An M-Y eBook

www.m-yebooks.co.uk

© 2010 Terry Minahan

eBook conversion by David Stockman

The Honourable Thadeus Burke met the Chairman of Lloyd’s of London, Mr P G Mackinnon, for the second time on Tuesday the first day of September 1925. Two years earlier they had met when Thadeus became an underwriting member or ‘name’ as they are known on the floor of the famous international insurance market. Several sheets of paper were signed regarding the relationship between the ‘name’ and Lloyd’s and the ‘name’s’ agent. The chairman of Lloyd’s, at that time a Mr A L Sturge, was a personal friend of Thadeus’ father and his eldest brother. His father was a proper lord coming from a long line of aristocracy and land ownership; his brother’s peerage had been bought from the Liberal Party just for the fun of it. Thadeus was the third son and might have been destined for the church had not his mother totally opposed what she termed ‘such a stupid idea’. Fortunately Thadeus had proved far too intelligent for the Church of Ireland and even the Church of England, graduating at Trinity College Dublin and having a year at St John’s College Cambridge. Mathematics and music were his subjects.

He might have become a professional pianist or cellist, but his older brother Jonathan, the middle one, died in an air accident in 1920 and Thadeus moved up the aristocratic ladder, his father quickly deciding that he should become ‘something in the city’, in particular something within the golden financial square mile. This suited Thadeus for he was keen to engage in the cut and thrust, duck and dive, of the business world – he could play numbers with anyone!

Thadeus was introduced to Lloyd’s in 1923 as a ‘working name’, a device that allowed those who worked within the Lloyd’s community to become underwriting members with lower deposits than the outside names. This saved money for his father and enabled Thadeus to get into the action as a broker. He joined the company of Crawford & Amos, established marine brokers but with a newly formed non-marine department to which Thadeus was attached.

The brokers at that time were mostly gentlemen of breeding and good schooling, though not necessarily well educated. They arrived in the office at about 10.30 am wearing their black top hats and sticks, read the newspapers for an hour, picked up a nominal amount of broking from the clerks and went off to coffee. For the next four hours – including two hours for lunch at the George & Vulture or Simpson’s – they obtained initials on simple endorsements to current policies, or maybe placed a piece of new business. At about 4.30, after tea, they returned to the office, dumped a heap of paper and slips on the clerks and went home to prepare for dinner.

Although equipped with his hat and stick Thadeus shunned this dilettante life and spent a lot of time with the clerks, taking on the servicing of some clients himself and thoroughly learned his trade. However, with regard to appearance Thadeus was strictly conservative, one might even say ‘high church’. He wore his fair hair rather longer than the current fashion; he found this mode a better mount for his top hat, or occasionally his bowler. He tended to model himself on Mr Stevens the underwriter at Syndicate 116; each partnership of underwriting names was styled a syndicate and allocated a trading number by the Committee of Lloyds; this was a gentleman in the finest city tradition – fine habiliment and a fresh rose in his buttonhole every day. Like Mr Stevens, Thadeus always wore a frock coat in the Room at Lloyd’s. Most brokers at the time wore lounge suits. Thadeus did permit the use of a folded collar, wearing his wings not more than once a week, unless he felt that the business in hand demanded the ‘full regalia’.

Which brings us on to 1 September 1925 when Thadeus was applying to establish his own broking company, Burke & Company. The ‘company’ being twenty per cent his mother and twenty per cent his sister – silent partners, well fairly silent partners. Again family connections worked well and everything went through on the nod.

A few days later Thadeus was looking for premises. He had seen an advertising board outside an office at 3 Gracechurch Street, just round the corner from the Lloyd’s Underwriting Room at the Royal Exchange and right opposite the entrance to Leadenhall Market, where a new Lloyd’s building was proposed on the corner of Leadenhall Street and Lime Street. The new building should be up and running within three years. The Burke family did not need any lessons on choosing locations!

The lease was being handled by solicitors Hargreaves & Simpkin. Thadeus viewed the premises during lunchtime when the present tenant had arranged for the office to be empty. Mr Hargreaves accompanied him. It was a single large office on the second floor, serviced by a lift. Within the room a separate mini office had been built, obviously for the boss, mainly of glass windows so that he had seclusion but a good view of the staff. There were desks for three workers. The tenant, a Mr Whelan, also a Lloyd’s broker, was retiring and Thadeus was able to complete reasonable terms for the lease and the office furniture.

Mr Whelan was due to leave the following Friday and Thadeus made arrangements to take over the keys and occupation on the Saturday morning. He was to meet a Mr James Pooley, an employee of Mr Whelan.

Thadeus arranged to meet James at The Stray Dog Café in Cullum Street, a scruffy little establishment run by a Russian émigré, but probably the best breakfast in the city.

He had been impressed with James when they spoke on the telephone and had in mind interviewing him for a post with the new firm. He already had a shorthand typist, Ethel, a very efficient young lady – and he needed a bright right hand man. Perhaps James could fill the post.

‘Tell me about yourself,’ Thadeus ventured as they sat in front of a huge plate of eggs, bacon and tomatoes. Within minutes he had a complete curriculum vitae recited to him. James was nineteen, courting a young lady named Eddie, living with his parents in a house in a place called Nunhead, in South London near Peckham Rye. James and Eddie intended to buy a house in the area. He had attended St Olave’s Grammar School in Tooley Street just across Tower Bridge, passed his Cambridge University entrance exams, but with no intention of going to university he had had an introduction to a company in the city where he intended to build his career. His father was a motor mechanic, started as a bus driver, horses then autobuses, now had his own business under a railway arch in Peckham. James’s forte was bookkeeping; he walked around the city ‘ticking up’ the ledgers between broker and underwriters. He handled the bank account and completed trial balances at the end of every month. He owned a motorcycle, a Royal Enfield 350cc, but also held a full driving licence. This information put them on a slight detour, Thadeus providing details of his Bentley 3-litre short chassis in British racing green, a colour that almost matched James’ face, until it was suggested that he might like to try it out one of these days, at which an eager smile filled his face.

He earned £78 a year from Mr Whelan. He was clean, well dressed, had a bowler hat, was six years younger than Thadeus and stood at five feet ten inches, three inches shorter than Thadeus – an ideal relationship. Thadeus engaged him on the spot, at £104 a year and suggested that he start straight away with a visit to the new office where they could make plans regarding stationery, telephones and the like. They set off for 3 Gracechurch Street. James had three sets of keys: street door, office door and the little office – apparently known to Mr Whelan’s staff as ‘the shed’ – and the wall safe.