INSURANCE EXECUTIVES 1 TO VISIT CHRISTCHURCH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 13

INSURANCE EXECUTIVES 1 TO VISIT CHRISTCHURCH

3 Two men eminent in the insur- * ance world in Britain will arrive * in Christchurch on November 26 J for a three-day visit during a * short tour of New Zealand. They * are Lord Middleton. chairman P of the Yorkshire Insurance Company, Ltd., and Mr H. T. Silvery sides, general manager of the £ company.

Apart from members of the J Royal Family. Lord Middleton is * believed to be only the third Knight of the Garter to visit New M Zealand in post-war years. The J others were Earl Mountbatten and Viscount Montgomery. Lord «»Middleton was invested with this g honour in 1957.

Lord Middleton, as a member J of one of Britain’s oldest families. * has something in common with

this country because his family 3 was doing well in the wool trade * soon after the Norman Conquest. T In many generations since then. •» members of the family (originally * named de Willughby) have distinguished themselves in law. in- * dustry, medicine, science, politics, the church, the navy and the - army as well as maintaining their * long association with the land. Lord Middleton chose the army as a career and after passing out Jof Sandhurst in 1907 served in * India. During World War I he * was in Mesopotamia and also «• commanded a cavalry regiment g in Baluchistan. He left the army in 1923 and •studied estate management and j agriculture. He now administers the Birdsall estate of about 15,000 * acres. 2 As a reservist he trained with

a Yeomanry unit and in 1939 j raised and commanded the sth X Battalion, East Yorkshire Regi-

ment. After commanding a home J defence battalion he went overBp seas in 1942, serving in various capacities in North Africa, Sicily, > Italy and France. «• Lord Middleton has been a

member of the board of the Yorkshire Insurance Company since 1926 and its chairman since 1935. He has also held the office of Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire since 1936. In 1954 he was appointed Chancellor of Hull University when it received its Royal Charter. Born in York in 1901, Mr Silversides served the company in that city, in London and in Manchester before becoming in 1946

deputy manager and later manager of the United States branch and president of the company’s American subsidiaries. He returned to England in 1950 as joint general manager.Mr Silversides was president of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 1955-56 and in 1956 was elected an honorary life member of the Insurance Society of New York. He was elected pre-

sident of the Insurance Institute of London last year. Two other chairmanships are connected specifically with electricity and engineering insurance. To facilitate the underwriting of nuclear reactor insurance, a committee was set up in 1955, Mr Silversides being appointed chairman. Until May of this year he remained as chairman of the subsequently established British Insurance (Atomic Energy) Committee.