Author: precarious dave

The Glasgow War Memorial (Roll of Honour) pictured here is now found in the Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. It is a large oil painting and was previously sited in pride of place, on the stairs of the Stock Exchange Building in Nelson Mandela Place (formerly Stock Exchange Square). The scroll was the work of Mr William Findlay Artist. It was unveiled by Col DW Cameron of Lochiel CMG, and was dedicated by Rev DA Cameron Reid DD MC on April 12 1921.

The Edinburgh Stock Exchange memorials are in the vestibule of St Andrew and St Georges Church on George Street in Edinburgh. They too were originally housed in the Edinburgh Stock Exchange’s offices, but when that closed (1971) they were removed to  the Scottish Stock Exchange in Glasgow, but returned to Edinburgh in 1998, to be displayed in their Parish of original location. this is explained on a plaque in the Church.

Whilst no one’s sacrifice should be overlooked, we observe that there are two Victoria Crosses mentioned in the Glasgow listing for 1914-18. One is for Capt Arthur Henderson VC MC the other is Lieut-Col William H Anderson VC. There is a further memorial to the latter in Glasgow Cathedral as he was one of four brothers, all of whom were killed during the war. A moving book giving a fictionalised account of this is The Way Home by Robin Scott-Elliot (out of print but available on Amazon as a Kindle download).

The Scottish Stockbrokers’ Benevolent Fund’s history dates back many, many years. It is the successor of Benevolent Funds around Scotland, from the days when there were five separate exchanges: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen (formed in the 1840s) and Dundee (1879) were never going to be rivalled by the Greenock Exchange (1888). Excepting Greenock’s, the separate cities’ exchanges were merged in 1964, following the Jenkins Committee report, and then in 1971, they rationalised to one trading floor in the Exchange building in Glasgow. At the time this was St George’s Square, but that was renamed in 1986, Nelson Mandela Place.

Technology was relentless, and with quicker communications, and economies of scale, it was not long before the Scottish Stock Exchange closed, trading being absorbed into the London Stock Exchange (1973).

When the exchanges started, you needed to become a member of the exchange in order to trade, but this structure eventually gave way to proprietors, members and clerks. The abolition of fixed commissions, the move to dual capacity, and the advent of computer trading led to the de-regulation of the industry and Big Bang in 1986.

In 1973 the Glasgow Stockbrokers Benevolent Fund, merged with the Edinburgh Stockbrokers Benevolent Fund, and the Glasgow Clerks Benevolent Fund merged with the Edinburgh Clerks Fund. In 1994, the two resulting funds merged too, always with a mission to support present and past members and their families – of the Scottish members and subsequently the Scottish-based LSE members – who fell upon hard times.

Since 1994 there have been no new members of the Scottish or London Stock Exchange but the SSBF continues to award annuities or ex-gratia payments to surviving members and their dependents, and draws new applicants from those who have worked for stockbroking businesses.