Barclays Bank: Extract from 'Written in flames'

Barclays Bank was originally a Quaker bank and the Bevan, Pease and Tuke quaker families still dominate It today.

Sir Timothy Bevan :has just retired from the chairmanship of Barclays whIch he'd joined after Eton and the Guards. He's 60 and l1ves at 15...Khyber Road, Battersea SW 11

Sir Richard Pease (65). 3rd Baronet, lives at Hindley House, Stocksfie1d on Tyne, Northumberland

Sir Anthony Tuke (67) was Barclays chair, then head of Rio Tlnto Zinc ‘now chair of the Savoy Hotel.

Seven Barclays directors were at Eton together. Others went to Marlborough, Winchester and Charterhouse. On the board are the county set: ex-soldier, John Henderson, landowner Lord Ashton and the aristocratic Lord Camoys, Ralph Stonor. There's Nigel Mobbs (50), chair of the industrial property company Slough Estates and of Alms for Industry, the right-wing pressure group. He was deputy lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and has the 2nd Viscount Kemsley as a father-in-Jaw. He's also a director of Woolworths and l1ves at Widmer Lodge, Lacey Green, Aylesbury

Former Minister, James Prior and top civil servant Sir Douglas Wass are directors. Julian Wathen left the foreign office to join Barclays and was vice chair from '79-84. He's president of the Royal African Society and a member of the council of Voluntary Service Overseas. He's 64 and lives at Woodcock House, Owlpen, Near Durstey, in Gloucestershire and 1 Montagu Place, Marylebone W!

Henry Lambert is chairman of the Sun A11iance insurance company. He l1ves at .l5-Matvern Court, Onslow Square, South Kensington SW7..

Humphrey Norrington, manager of the Commercial Union, lives at Hill House, Frithsden Copse, Berkhampstead.

There are company heads on the board, Hke Sir Christopher Laidlaw, chair of the Bridon wire company and origina11y a recruit to BP from Rugby and Cambridge. He's 65, he's a director of Dalgety and other companies and lives at 49.Chetsea Square SW3

David Atterton (60), former chair of Foseco Mlnsep, who supply chemicals to the construction industry, and director of the engineering company IMI, the Rank Organization and the Bank of England, lives at The Doctors House, Doctor's Hill Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

Sir James Spooner (55), head of Carrington Viyella and director of Sainsbury's, lives at 52 Clarendon Rd W11 In March '87, him and David Sainsbury were lunching with the Prince of Wales at Kensington Palace, along with Richard Branson of Virgin and Alan Sugar of Amstrad.

ICl's boss', Denys Henderson and Whitbread's former chair, Cahrles Tidbury are also directors.

In November '86, Barclays announced that it was selling its South African subsidiary, Barclays National Bank. Thousands of anti-apartheid campaigners celebrated victory. But it seems unlikely that it was the student boycott which pushed Barclays to this. More worrying to them was the pressure from their own class, the Oxford Colleges for instance. With the pull-out of US multinationals, Barclays was becoming more exposed. At the same time, it became obvious that the Black revolt would become more radical and less accepting of Western companies, unless definite action was taken

Timothy Bevan and Martin Jacomb were holding talks with the ANC while still defending publicly their South African investment. South Africa is heavily in debt to Barclays and with the fall in the value of the Rand, less money can be made out of apartheid. Selling off Barclays National to the Anglo American Corporation means that Barclays keeps an involvement in South Africa. Maintaining what's called a .working relationship with BarNat and funding the Anglo American mining operations. The South African debt also stays with Barclays in London. In this way, Barclays, like Genera. Motors and IBM can rush straight back into South Africa's wealth, as soon as the regime is changed.

John Quinton (58) has taken Timothy Bevan's place as chairman. He went to pUbl1c school and Cambridge and lives at Chenies Place, Chenies, near .Rickmansworth, .in Buckinghamshire

Sir Martin Jacomb (58) was bought from Kleinwort Benson to head BZW, Barclays new merchant bank and stockbroking section. He went to Eton and Oxford and trained as a barrister. He's a director of Commercial Union and the Hudson Bay Company. He lives at 45 Canonbury Square, Islington W1.. Derk Pelly (58), chair of Barclays International, a Marlborough and Cambridge man, gives his address as 11 Wall Side, Monkwell Square in the City. He's on the council for Overseas Development. Peter Leslie (56), managing director, went to Stowe public schoo1 and lives at 151 Sutherland. Avenue, St Johns Wood W9.