Gerard Lee Bevan (9 November 1869 – 24 April 1936) was a British financier, the man "most responsible for the entire City Equitable debacle", and "a daring and unprincipled scoundrel". In December 1922 he was convicted at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

of fifteen charges of fraud and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude.

The Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed int ...

, 5 December 1922, pp.1-2

Early life

Gerard Lee Bevan was born on 9 November 1869. He was the fourth son of Francis Bevan, chairman of Barclays Bank from 1896 to 1916. He 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.

Career

Bevan had "magnetic charm" and became a stockbroker with Ellis & Co, an old-established and reputable City firm. He was very successful and highly respected until his "crash" in the 1920s. He was chairman of the City Equitable Fire Insurance Co. In a major 1925 court case,

Re City Equitable Fire Insurance Co ''Re City Equitable Fire Insurance Co'' 925Ch 407 is a UK company law case concerning directors' duties, and in particular the duty of care. It is no longer good law, as it stipulated that a "subjective" standard of competence applied. Now unde ...

, the company lost £1,200,000 () in failure of investments and the large scale fraud of the chairman, ‘a daring and unprincipled scoundrel’. The liquidator sued the other directors for negligence. The auditors were sued too, but the Court of Appeal held they were honest and exonerated by provisions in the company’s articles. The story has been written up in Martin Vander Weyer's 'Fortune's Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s'. 2012. Elliott & Thompson.

Personal life

He married Sophie Kenrick, also from a wealthy family, Midlands industrialists related to the Chamberlains. They bought a house in Upper Grosvenor Street, and Bevan collected Chinese porcelain. He was also a "serial adulterer, treating glamorous mistresses ostentatiously". He married twice, had issue and died in Havana, Cuba on 24 April 1936.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevan, Gerard Lee 1869 births 1936 deaths Businesspeople from London People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English bankers English people of Welsh descent

Gerard Lee Gerard Lee is an Australian novelist, screenwriter, and director. Early life Gerard Lee was born in Melbourne and brought up in Brisbane in the 1960s in the inner southern suburb of Dutton Park. Lee began writing for ''The Telegraph (Brisbane ...