Andrew Rutherford Davidson
Andrew Rutherford Davidson joined the Standard Life Assurance Company in 1914, having previously worked in the Edinburgh office of the English and Scottish Life Assurance Association.[1] As an assistant actuary with an interest in investment performance, Andrew R. Davidson was jointly responsible, alongside Albert Edward King, for the switch in focus of the company's investments from mortgages to ordinary shares in 1925.[1]
Davidson succeeded Edward Blount as agency manager in 1931, working with Alexander Robert Reid as his assistant.[1] As agency manager, Davidson toured the country, visiting branches, and providing energetic encouragement to staff, and pioneering a highly successful overhaul in the way the sales force was managed.[1] He worked hard in the early 1930s to create a branch network across towns and cities, and encouraged a re-design of company promotional materials.[1] Additionally, as agency manager he brought all overseas operations directly under head office, streamlining operations across the company.[1]
Throughout his time with the company, Davidson visited several overseas offices, including India (in 1938), Canada (in 1932), and the West Indies (1946). In 1938 Davidson became deputy manager and actuary, and in 1942 succeeded Alfred John Mascall as manager.[1]
Management[edit]
Despite a large proportion of staff being members of the reserves, Davidson carried the company through the Second World War and ensured its survival by obtaining new business where possible, maintaining connections with agencies, and cutting costs.[1]
Across his career at Standard Life, Davidson was keen to offer mortgages alongside life assurance, especially as private housing markets expanded in England in the early 1930s,[1] and again following World War Two, when he focused on direct contact with customers rather than working through brokers, and fostering local connections.[1]
Outside normal business, Davidson was responsible for creating an annual football fixture between the London and Edinburgh offices, as it was practice for staff to organise an outing on the Whit-Monday bank holiday.[1] Through Davidson's hard work, by the time he retired in 1951, Standard Life had become a leader in the UK pensions and life assurance market, and the largest mutual life office of the time.[1] Davidson was succeeded by Alexander Robert Reid.
References[edit]
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