Securicor plc was one of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004.

History

The Company was founded by Edward Shortt, a former Liberal Cabinet Minister, in 1935 as ''Nightwatch Services'':Group 4's Danes to swoop on Securicor
The Times, 1 February 2004 its guards rode bicycles and wore old police uniforms. However, in 1939 it was taken over by

Lord Willingdon Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon (12 September 1866 – 12 August 1941), styled as the Earl of Willingdon between 1931 and 1936, was a British people, British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician and administrator who served ...

and Henry Tiarks who developed it into a leading security business. It changed its name to ''Security Corps'' in 1951 and shortened it to ''Securicor'' in 1953. In 1960, it was acquired by ''Associated Hotels'' which itself dated back to 1923. In 1984, one of its security guards, John James McWilliams, was murdered while working in London. Securicor, along with co-founder

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

, was involved with the creation of mobile phone operator

Cellnet Telefonica UK Limited, trading as O2 UK (stylised as O2), is a British telecommunications services provider. It is the largest mobile network in the United Kingdom, with approximately 23.2million subscribers . The network was launched in 198 ...

in 1985. Securicor sold its share in the company to

in 1999, resulting in the formation of BT Cellnet, which was later spun off as O2. In 2004, Securicor merged with Group 4 Falck to become Group 4 Securicor.Group 4 Falck and Securicor plc announce terms of merger
Nordic Business Report, 24 February 2004

References

Security companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in London British companies established in 1935 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 1935 establishments in England Companies disestablished in 2004 2004 disestablishments in England {{England-company-stub