UNIVERSITY LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/B/079-04
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: UNIVERSITY LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY
Date(s)	: 1825-1957
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 75 production units.
Name of creator(s)	: University Life Assurance Society

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The University Life Assurance Society was founded by a group of graduates of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in 1825 and received its Royal Charter in 1826. The Society was established to effect assurances on the lives of past and present members of these two universities only. However, by a Supplemental Charter of 1851, eligibility for membership of the Society was extended to past and present members of any university in the United Kingdom. Currently, membership is open to those educated at universities, public schools and similar educational institutions.

The Society was originally based at 24 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East which it occupied under a Crown lease. It purchased the freehold of 25 Pall Mall in 1865 and occupied the premises from 1871 until 1941 when they were destroyed by an enemy land mine. During the Second World War the Society carried on most of its business from Russettings, Balcombe, Sussex. From 1941 until 1966 it was based at 19A Coleman Street. In 1966, the Society moved to its present head office at 4 Coleman Street. This is also the home of the Equitable Life Assurance Society which had acquired the University Life Assurance Society in 1919.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the University Life Assurance Society, including the Royal Charter and supplemental charters; minute books; share certificates; life policy registers; register of deaths of policyholders; letter books; legal case papers and register of probates.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by the Equitable Life Assurance Society on 25 March 1992. On 1 June 2007 University Life Assurance Society was acquired by Reliance Mutual Insurance Society Limited. This purchase included the whole of the archives of University Life Assurance Society. These records are therefore now held as a deposit from Reliance Mutual Insurance Society Limited, and enquiries about publication should be addressed to Reliance Mutual. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Generally, records after 1920 have been retained by the Society.

Publication note:

For a brief history of the Society see University Life Assurance Society 1825-1975 [150th anniversary commemorative booklet] by Alan E. Campbell, Deputy Manager and Secretary (London, 1975), a copy of which is held in the Printed Books Section of Guildhall LIbrary.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
November 2010 to January 2011.