Alfred Clayton Cole (17 December 18545 June 1920) was a
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
merchant and director of the Bank of England, serving as
Governor of the Bank of England
The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...
from 1911 to 1913.
Early life and background
The younger son of William Henry Cole, a banker and merchant trading with the Americas, with premises in
Gracechurch Street
Gracechurch Street is a main road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London, which is designated the A1213.
It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, and offices and has an entrance to Leadenhall Market, a covered ...
, in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
,
[''Chemist and Druggist: The Newsweekly for Pharmacy'', Volume 34 (1889), p. 799: "The late Mr. William Henry Cole, whose death we briefly announced in our last issue, was born at Pulham in 1819, and... still carrying on business as American merchants and bankers at 85 Gracechurch Street, E.C."] the young Cole was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, then in 1880 entered his father's business in London, W. H. Cole & Son.
[Youssef Cassis, ''Banquiers de la City à l'époque Édouardienne'' (1994), p. 89] In 1882 he was listed in the ''Webster's Court and Fashionable Register'' with an address at 64,
Portland Place
Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the Third Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to BBC Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Institute of British A ...
.
At Eton, Cole was a pupil of
Oscar Browning
Oscar Browning OBE (17 January 1837 – 6 October 1923) was a British educationalist, historian and ''bon viveur'', a well-known Cambridge personality during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. An innovator in the early development of ...
and continued to correspond with him throughout his career. He had an older brother, William Utting Cole (1851–1892), who became an officer in the
3rd Dragoon Guards
The 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1751 and the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) ...
and died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
while serving in India. His widow married secondly
Herbert Studd
Brigadier General Herbert William Studd (26 December 1870 – 8 August 1947) was an English first-class cricketer and soldier.
Cricketer
Studd was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a right-handed batsman
In cr ...
. He also had one sister, Annie Frances Cole, who in 1876 married
Colonel Sir Howard Elphinstone VC, later promoted to general, and they had four daughters.
Career
Cole became a director of the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
in 1895.
[ In 1901 he was listed as "Partner in firm of William Henry Cole and Co., merchants, Director of the Bank of England, and the London Assurance Corporation", with his address still in Gracechurch Street. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant for the City of London and a member of the Athenaeum Club and the ]St James's Club
The St James's Club was a London gentlemen's club which operated between 1857 and 1978. It was founded by two leading diplomats and its members continued to be largely diplomats and authors. It was first established in Charles Street and moved to ...
.
His father had died in 1889, and in 1908 he closed the family firm, on becoming its sole partner. He served for two years as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England A Deputy Governor of the Bank of England is the holder of one of a small number of senior positions at the Bank of England, reporting directly to the Governor.
According to the original charter of 27 July 1694 the Bank's affairs would be supervise ...
from 1909 and was Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
from 1911 to 1913, when he was succeeded by Walter Cunliffe.[Sayers, ''The Bank of England'', vol. 3, pp. 359—363] In 1911 he wrote to his friend Browning "Of course it is pleasant to get to the top of the tree, though in my case it means more work and a great deal more responsibility. Still I have never been afraid of either one or the other."
In 1905 a remark by Cole, as a director of the Bank of England, was widely reported:[
The then Governor of the bank, A. F. Wallace, made a strong reply to this in a speech at the Mansion House in June 1906.][ And in 1911, ironically, it fell upon Cole as Governor to announce a new scheme for closer co-operation between the Bank of England and the clearing banks.][
He retired from the Bank of England in 1913. When he died in 1920, he was described in an obituary as "a man of great ability, of strong convictions, with fearless courage in expressing them".][
]
Private life
In 1907, at St George's, Hanover Square
St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church, the parish church of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London (the Queen Anne C ...
, Cole married Lilian Seymour Chamberlain (1864–1949), the Canadian-born widow of Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...
's brother Herbert.[David Dilks, ''Neville Chamberlain'', Volume 1, pp. 115, 116] Four years later, at the same church, his niece Anne de Vere Cole married his wife's nephew Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
, later to become British prime minister.[
In 1906, Cole's late brother's son, ]Horace de Vere Cole
William Horace de Vere Cole (5 May 1881 – 25 February 1936) was an eccentric prankster born in Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland. His most famous prank was the ''Dreadnought'' hoax where he and several others in blackface, pretending to b ...
, inherited West Woodhay House
West Woodhay House is a Grade I listed building in the parish of West Woodhay, West Berkshire, UK.
History and description
The house was erected in 1635 and is attributed to Inigo Jones, although it is likely to have been designed and built by E ...
in Berkshire, but lacked the income to live in the property, and in 1912 Cole bought it from him.
Cole died on 5 June 1920 at West Woodhay House, when his addresses were given as "of 64 Portland-place Middlesex, of West Woodhay-house Berkshire, and of Pulham St Mary Magdalen Norfolk".["Obituary: Death of Mr A. C. Cole", in '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' dated 9 June 1920["COLE Alfred Clayton" entry in Index to grants of probate for the year 1920 at probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 2 March 2019] He was buried at St Mary Magdalen's church, Pulham Market
Pulham Market is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, situated approximately northeast of Diss and south of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 999 in 443 households as of the 2001 census, the population falling to 977 at ...
, with the remains of his parents, William Henry and Jane Cole. Cole left an estate valued at £208,687, and probate
Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...
was granted to Lilian Seymour Cole, widow, Jessie Degen Cole, spinster, Lt Col. Robert Singleton McClintock, and Charles Stephen Clayton.[
Cole's widow died at home, 29 ]Eaton Square
Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgravia ...
, Belgravia
Belgravia () is a Districts of London, district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' Tudor Period, during the ...
, on 21 December 1949, having been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
. General Sir Ralph Eastwood and Brigadier A. A. M. Durand were the Executors of her estate.["COLE, Lilian Seymour O.B.E.", entry in Index to grants of probate for the year 1949 at probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 2 March 2019]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Arthur Clayton
1854 births
1920 deaths
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Deputy Governors of the Bank of England
Deputy Lieutenants of the City of London
Governors of the Bank of England
People educated at Eton College
People from South Norfolk (district)