Issue 5 - Autumn 2015
Contents:
PAT’s 10th Anniversary
This year sees the 10th anniversary of the formation of The Pensions Archive Trust (PAT) which was launched by the late Alastair Ross Goobey when he gave the inaugural Ross Goobey lecture at the Cass Business School on 27 October 2005. Much has happened since then, not least the establishment in 2007 of our invaluable partnership with the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), and then obtaining charitable status a year later.
We are most grateful for the support we have received from many sources, both financial, to enable us to pay our way, and by the generosity of numerous donors of archival materials. We are proud to be gathering a growing and diverse collection, and are well on the way towards achieving our prime objective of preserving pensions history for the future.
To mark this occasion, on the evening of Tuesday 3rd November, we are holding a special event in the Auditorium at the offices of Sacker & Partners LLP on 6th Floor, 20 Gresham Street who are very kindly hosting and sponsoring it. It will reflect, in a spirit of optimism, the role of the Pensions Archive both as a custodian of the past, and of the changing face of pensions for the future. Our President, Michael Pomery, will introduce the evening’s programme.
Dr Yally Avrahampour will then open by:
- drawing on pensions history, with our major collection of the papers of investment doyen the late George Ross Goobey, as the catalyst;
- beginning to bridge the gap between pensions past to pensions today.
Alan Higham will follow by:
- completing the story of pensions to the present day;
- focusing on current developments in pensions – new ideas for new circumstances
and the evening will conclude with a reception. If you would like to receive more details and an invitation send an email to: events@sackers.com
Board appointments
During the year the directors of PAT have been very pleased to welcome three new directors to the Board; Jocelyn Blackwell, Jane Marshall and Peter Dawes.
Jocelyn Blackwell founded Dunnett Shaw in 1987, a management consultancy that specialised in advising clients on pensions administration processes, systems and outsourcing. It was one of the original funders of PAT. The business merged with Higham Group in 2005 to form Higham Dunnett Shaw which was sold to Capita in 2007. Jocelyn was also founder of the industry wide “Raising Standards in Pensions Administration” (now PASA). She was the winner of the “First Woman in Finance Award” in 2005. She is a Non-Executive Director of Inside Pensions, a specialist firm that provides independent scheme secretarial services to trustee boards and also of NOW:Pensions, the independent multi employer trust.
Jane Marshall has been a pensions lawyer since 1981, joining Lovell White & King at a time where few firms and lawyers considered pensions law a speciality. A founder member of the APL, she has served on various industry bodies, including most recently the NAPF's legal panel. She was part of the NAPF team which gave evidence on pensions and divorce to a House of Commons Select Committee.
She was the managing partner of boutique pensions law firm Ellison Westhorp and negotiated its merger with national firm Hammond Suddards (now Squire Sanders). She headed its 40 plus team of pension lawyers and was responsible for some of its biggest clients. Jane has contributed to and edited a number of books on pensions law, including Pensions: the New Law (Jordans 1995) and The Pensions Act 2004 (The Law Society). Having retired as a partner of Macfarlanes LLP she now runs her own consulting firm which focuses on risk, governance and the promotion of closer working relationships between trustees and sponsors.
Peter Dawes, after graduating in law, became the first company secretary trainee at British Aircraft Corporation and was quickly involved with pensions. Over the next 10 year, he spent time as Secretary of the BAC Pension Scheme and subsequently, of the British Aerospace Pension Scheme.
Whilst his mainstream career has been as company secretary of listed companies, he has almost always been responsible for pension arrangements in his employing company. His last full time position was as Secretary of Vosper Thornycroft (later VT Group plc) and in this capacity he was also a trustee of the LAWDCs Pension Scheme and the Shipbuilding Industries Pension Scheme: for the latter, over a period of ten years he rotated as Chairman of Trustees and Chairman of the Investment Committee.
Peter is currently Chairman of Trustees of the Wärtsilä Hamworthy Pension Scheme and a trustee of the Royal Alfred Seafarers Staff Pension Fund. He has been a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators since 1982 and is a Liveryman of their associated Livery Company.
Interns
PAT has been very pleased to continue its financial support of the LMA’s intern scheme which assists young people develop careers in Archive Administration
Joe Williams completed his year’s internship with LMA/PAT in August. We thank him for his contribution to PAT’s work and especially his efforts in completing the cataloguing of the extended Ross Goobey collection (see below). He has been successful in obtaining a place on the one year University College London - Archives and Records Management professional Diploma/MA course. We wish him well on the course and in his future career. We welcome Joe’s successor who is Rachel Cole. Rachel will be joining the team on 12 October for a twelve month internship. She will be coming from a year-long post at the Peterborough Archives as a trainee of the Transforming Archives scheme run by the National Archives.
New PAT intern, Rachel Cole.
George Henry Ross Goobey collection
PAT is delighted to announce that significant additional records to the George Henry Ross Goobey collection have now been catalogued. The papers consist of transcripts of speeches, draft and final copies of articles, handwritten notes, correspondence and details of his involvement with an extensive range of groups and organisations. The collection has been given the reference LMA/4481.
Ross Goobey joined the Imperial Group Pension Fund as pensions manager in 1947, following a training as investment manager at Marine & General Insurance company and qualification as an actuary. As the pension manager of Imperial Tobacco, Ross Goobey invested the entirety of the Imperial Tobacco pension fund in equities in the mid-1950s and advocated equity investment as an appropriate policy for pension funds. His central role in the widespread shift by pension funds from investing predominantly in fixed income to investing in equities, known as the 'cult of equity', makes him one of the most influential investors in the UK.
The newly cat
alogued material shows the breadth of George Ross Goobey’s professional and personal interests. The date range for the collection is 1905-1999; the start date being that of an early pension scheme included within his records for Christ’s Hospital.
Ross Goobey’s charitable interests are well represented in the collection in both a personal capacity as subscriber and supporter and professionally in terms of investment advice offered during his working life and in retirement.
Integrated into the George Henry Ross Goobey collection (LMA/4481) is a selection of papers which can be viewed digitally. The scans, along with comment papers on George Ross Goobey's work, and a transcript of Ross Goobey's address to the 1956 Conference of the Association of Superannuation and Pension Funds can be accessed on the George Ross Goobey page of the website. For any general enquiries about access to LMA, please contact the LMA Enquiries Team at ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Joe Williams finishing labelling the George Henry Ross Goobey collection at LMA.
Friends of PAT
We want to encourage those who work in pensions to regard the Pensions Archive very much as their archive which records the part they and their predecessors have played in developing pension provision in the UK. Subscriptions or donations from individuals who wish to support the Trust’s work by becoming a Friend of PAT are very welcome. The Trust can claim Gift Aid on donations from individuals who pay Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax in the UK. For enquiries about Friends of PAT, contact Malcolm Deering: malcolm.deering@btinternet.com
Annual General Meeting of PAT
The Annual General Meeting of PAT will take place at the London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB on Tuesday 12 January 2016 at 5.00pm followed by a reception and tours of the LMA which will conclude by 6.45pm.
Some of PAT’s collections will be on display including some of the new items from the George Ross Goobey collection. If you would like to attend please contact Intern Rachel Cole at LMA whose contact details are shown above.
Alan Herbert
Chairman
The Pensions Archive Trust
E-mail: alanherbert@btconnect.com
Tel: 01438 869198
