Leopold Salomons (original) (raw)

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Leopold Salomons (14 May 1841 – 23 September 1915) was a city financier and company director active in the City of London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[1] Salomons was born into a British Jewish family, but it has been suggested that he later converted to Christianity.[2] Today he is primarily remembered for his purchase of Box Hill in 1914 to protect it from development.

Career in the City of London

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Salomons was one of the founders and directors of the Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation Limited in 1880. He identified the potential market for employers' liability insurance which had arisen as a consequence of the Employers' Liability Act of 1880.[3] After Salomons' death in 1915, the then director of the Corporation commented, "[Salomons] was the founder of the Corporation and one of the original Directors, and through his great financial ability helped us to steer through many shoals which confronted us at the commencement of our career as a company."[3] The company survives to this day (after multiple mergers and acquisitions) as part of the Aviva plc insurance group.[4]

Together with city financiers Jabez Balfour and Sir John Pender, Salomons founded the investment underwriting firm the Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited in December 1887.[2][5]

Purchase and gift of Box Hill

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Salomons Memorial, Box Hill, Surrey (2010)

Salomons purchased Norbury Park near Mickleham in Surrey from the estate of Sir Thomas Grissell in 1890.[6] In 1914, he purchased 230 acres of Box Hill to protect it from development, which he subsequently donated to the nation.[7] A memorial to Salomons (commonly known as The Viewpoint) was constructed at the summit of the hill and was opened by his widow in 1920.[7][8] Box Hill became the UK's first Country Park and is now owned and managed by the National Trust.

Salomons had a keen interest in shire horse breeding and served as a Governor of the Royal Agricultural Society.[9]

Salomons funded the addition of a vestry to St Michael's Chapel in Westhumble.[10]

Salomons was buried in the churchyard of St Michael's Church, Mickleham. His wife, Annie Martha Salomons (born in Geelong, Australia) was buried alongside him after her death on 27 November 1932.

1. ^ Hawkins, RA (2012). "Salomons, Leopold (1841–1915)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
2. ^ a b Hawkins, RA (2007). "American Boomers and the Flotation of Shares in the City of London in the Late Nineteenth Century". Business History. 49 (6): 802–822. doi:10.1080/00076790701710282. S2CID 153446872.
3. ^ a b Robinson, HP (1930). The Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation, Limited. London: Waterlow & Sons Ltd.
4. ^ Stone A (2010). "Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation Ltd". Aviva plc. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
5. ^ Mira Wilkins (1989). The history of foreign investment in the United States to 1914. Harvard studies in business history. Vol. 41. Harvard University Press. p. 492. ISBN 0-674-39666-9.
6. ^ Shepperd, Ronald (1991). Micklam the story of a parish. Mickleham Publications. ISBN 0-9518305-0-3.
7. ^ a b Grieves, Keith (2018). "'A perfectly unspoiled site of priceless beauty': Lord Francis Hope, Leopold Salomons and Box Hill, 1894–1914" (PDF). Surrey Archaeological Collections. 101: 1–29. doi:10.5284/1069438. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 February 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
8. ^ Edwards, Mark (11 September 2014). "Box Hill viewing point reopens to mark 100th anniversary". Surrey Live. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
9. ^ Hitchin, WE (1906). Surrey at the Opening of the Twentieth Century. Brighton: WT Pike & Co. p. 163.
10. ^ Shepperd, R (1982). The Manor of Wistomble in the Parish of Mickleham. Westhumble: Westhumble Association. p. 68.