Into the New Century

Into the New Century

Charles Stanley's 70th birthday, in 1884, coincided with the building of the new market, and he now began to come less often to the office. He moved from Bayswater to distant Datchet, commuting infrequently to Waterloo. He died in January 1897 at the age of 83. To his widow, Anne, he left the substantial sum of £14,156.

The Stock Market was virtually suspended for the four years of war. In the pandemonium of Armistice Day, Charles Herbert Stanley's youngest child, Joan, aged 19, was smuggled into the market dressed in a frock coat and top hat. She is believed to be the first woman ever to walk on the Stock Exchange floor.

The Stanley brothers, Charles Herbert and Arthur John, had been great tennis enthusiasts, and Charles had played at Wimbledon. The firm came to a standstill each year in Wimbledon fortnight, except for the distribution of tickets for the tournament.

The partners' keen judgement served them well through the traumas of the 1920s, the expansion of the Stock Exchange, the General Strike and the Crash. Both brothers became in turn the 'Father of the House'. Charles Herbert, a flamboyant market figure, died in July 1931 at the age of 79; it now became imperative that his son Evelyn be recalled from Paris to join the partnership. This, with much reluctance, he agreed to do. Arthur John was a bachelor, now 78, and his nephew Evelyn was the last of the line.

To bolster the business, in 1935 a new partner was introduced, Harold Seymour Howard, a financier, politician and confidante of Lloyd George. He had arrived just in time. For Arthur John Stanley died in July 1935. It was in the middle of England's disastrous Test Series against South Africa; and, perhaps a shadow of things to come, 'Mr Arthur' in his final illness was convinced that Hitler had sabotaged the pitch.

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