General Accident plc was a large insurance business based in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Scotland. It merged with

Commercial Union Commercial Union plc was a large insurance business based in London. It merged with General Accident in 1998 to form CGU plc. History Commercial Union was established following a conflagration near London Bridge in 1861, known as the Great Too ...

in 1998 to form

CGU plc CGU plc was a large insurance group, created by the merger of Commercial Union and General Accident in 1998. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. It merged with Norwich Union in 2000 to form CGNU plc, later renamed Aviva plc. ...

History

The Norie-Miller years

The Employers' liability act of 1880 opened a new area of

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and one of the many companies formed to serve that market was formed in

Perth, Scotland Perth (Scottish English, locally: ; gd, Peairt ) is a city in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population o ...

in 1885. The General Accident and Employers’ Liability Assurance Association was launched by local businessmen with a capital of only £5,000 and its main object was to provide local farmers and others with accident insurance. Its first policy was written in March 1886 and at its opening AGM it reported premium income of £2,700. What happened then was to radically change the future of the insurer, with the appointment of the 27-year-old Francis Norie-Miller as Secretary and manager. Norie-Miller had previously been the Assistant Manager of Mercantile Accident of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. His reign spanned over half a century, remaining as managing director until 1939 and chairman until 1944; during that time, he took General Accident from a small local firm to a major international insurer.Irvine Gray, A Business Epic 1885-1935, 1935 By the time of the second AGM, branches had been opened in “all the important centres of the U.K.” and more than 800 agents appointed. Early financial results were encouraging but there were “heavy claims” in 1889. Fresh capital was raised and in 1891 the Association was reconstituted as The General Accident Assurance Corporation with an authorised capital of £100,000. As well as extending its geographic coverage, General Accident widened the range of policies. In 1890 it issued its first burglary policy, moved into the much larger fire insurance market in 1895 and, following the repeal of the

Red Flag Act The Locomotive Acts (or Red Flag Acts) were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom regulating the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on British public highways during the latter part of the 19th century. The first three, the Lo ...

in 1896, started issuing motor policies. By the end of the 1890s, there were 20 branch offices and over 6,000 agencies. Overseas expansion began in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1899 and by 1914 there were offices on all continents. Marking its move into a full composite company, General Accident began issuing life assurance policies in 1906, changing its name to General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation. By the onset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

premium income was £1.5 million. Like many insurers, General Accident suffered losses in early years of the war but became profitable in the latter years. Post-war growth was rapid, led by motor insurance and by 1924, premiums reached £5.4 million. A hire purchase subsidiary was formed in 1923 and in the same year the Road Transport and General Insurance Company was acquired. Other acquisitions included the General Life Assurance Company, which became the centre for the group's life business and the Scottish Automobile and General Insurance Company, a

motor insurer. Between 1925 and 1935 the number of offices doubled and premium income exceeded £8 million. In 1933. Norie-Miller became chairman; while also remaining as managing director, his son Stanley became General Manager eventually serving as chairman from 1951 until 1968.

Further growth

In the post-war period General Accident acquired several new subsidiaries including the

Yorkshire Insurance Company The Yorkshire Insurance Company was an English insurance company. The company was founded in 1824, in York, as the Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company. Its objects were initially "to effect insurance against loss by fire and on lives and sur ...

in 1967, despite a higher bid from Phoenix Assurance. By 1975 assets reached £1 billion and by the early 1980s assets were over £3 billion; total premium income was in excess of £1.5 billion, a third of which came from the US, By the late 1980s, General Accident had become increasingly acquisitive. In the UK this included a move into estate agency, soon to be loss-making. By the end of the 1980s, GA had acquired over 500 estate agencies. In this way, General Accident enlarged its housing insurance business and created new channels for the distribution of other insurance products, especially lucrative life policies. The move into the estate-agency business was not successful: the depressed British mortgage market produced considerable losses. On the other side of the world, General Accident bought NZI Corporation, a New Zealand-based insurance and banking firm, in 1988, intending to use it to expand into the Pacific market; it too was soon loss-making. The 1990 accounts (the first on line at Companies House) showed premium income of £3.5 billion but a £121 million pre-tax loss in 1990. After three years of losses, General Accident bounced back to record profits in 1993. This was followed by the purchase of the life assurance company, Provident Mutual in 1996.

The merger

In response to the trend for consolidation in the international insurance market, General Accident announced a merger with

in 1997, a year in which General Accident made record profits of £511 million. The merger was effected in June 1998 and the new merged company was named

Buildings

General Accident moved to a purpose-built head office at

2 High Street, Perth 2 High Street is a municipal building in Perth, Scotland. Standing at the corner of High Street and Tay Street, the building is currently the home of offices of Perth and Kinross Council, which also occupies the municipal buildings at 1 Tay Street ...

in 1899; the building was extended in 1958. The company also used

Viewlands House Viewlands House is an historic building in the Viewlands area immediately to the west of the centre of Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Located on Viewlands Road, it is a Category B listed building, built around 1840.Aviva Financial services companies established in 1885 Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 1885 establishments in Scotland Financial services companies disestablished in 1998 1998 disestablishments in Scotland Companies based in Perth, Scotland