A Change at the Helm

A Change at the Helm

Evelyn Stanley was now senior partner and for a while, under the threat of impending war, the firm marked time. Seymour Howard devoted much of his energy to his political career, but in 1936 he was joined in the firm by his son Edward, newly down from Oxford. Business was thin, and almost stuttered to a halt during the six years of war. Both of the Howards were called away - Seymour to serve on the Cabinet Committee on Allied Supplies, and Edward to the RAF. But even then a straw in the wind gave a hint of things to come.

In 1942 the firm acquired the small business of Davison and Jones, and the list of partners began to expand. With the return of peace there was a brief period of general restructuring of Stock Exchange companies; in 1948 came another acquisition, part of Middleton & Co; and in 1952 the firm acquired Sewell, Wilson & Co.

Evelyn Stanley was winding down his role, and it was decided in 1947 that Seymour Howard should become senior partner. He had been Sheriff of the City of London in 1944/45; now it was as senior partner of the firm that he served as Lord Mayor of London, in 1954/55. One of the highlights of his year was an official visit to the Soviet Union; here he was the first Western citizen to broadcast on Russian television. He had done business with Lenin in the 1920s and was a member of the Government mission to Stalin in 1938, sent in the vain hope of heading off a pact with Hitler. How fitting then, that the City's first formal delegation to Russia, to meet Mr Khrushchev, should be headed by Seymour Howard.

Evelyn Stanley suffered a serious motor accident in 1949, and took this opportunity to retire altogether from the Stock Exchange. He had long harboured the wish to be a fruit farmer, and now bought some land in Kent and settled there. He had no sons to follow him into the business; and so, after more than a century and a half, the Stanley's association with stockbroking finally drew to a close.

In 1934 the firm had moved westwards along Cornhill, from 29 to No 1 on the corner by the Mansion House. As the firm steadily grew it needed larger premises, and now moved again, in 1953, to 6 Throgmorton Street. Here it continued its expansion, most notably when it was joined in 1956 by J S Moyle, from Hirsch Stokes, who was to build up the firm's investment department. By 1960 the firm needed larger premises again; this coincided with the plans of the landlord, the Stock Exchange itself, to start development of the new market floor. And so on January 1st 1961 Charles Stanley & Co moved to the 'fringes' of the City - to 18 Finsbury Circus.

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