the world of private banking

CHAPTER 14
Private Bankers and Philanthropy:
the City of London, 1880s–1920s
Pat Thane
Philanthropy and the British Elite
The location at which the lives of the very poor and the very rich touched,
glancingly, in late Victorian and Edwardian England was that of philanthropy.
In recent years historians have become increasingly aware of the importance of
philanthropic giving in the culture of the period, thanks, in particular, to the work
of Frank Prochaska . Few of the substantially wealthy did not make substantial
charitable donations; many also gave considerable amounts of time to charitable
administration. How much was given by how many is unknown, and probably
unknowable since much of this activity went unrecorded or the records of dead
charities have been lost. The commitment to philanthropy among the elite was
led by the Royal Family. As Prochaska has shown with fascinating detail, royal
patronage of and donations to charities were well established in the eighteenth
century. These became a more prominent role of monarchy under the influence of
Prince Albert. He needed to find a role, was seriously committed to public service
and the improvement of social conditions and was early to appreciate the importance
of securing the popularity of the monarchy and of building direct links with the
wider population through involvement in the provincial, as well as metropolitan,
charities with which professional and business families were closely involved.
After Albert’s death, Victoria continued this philanthropic crusade. Though she
offended her politicians by withdrawal from political functions, she took care not
to offend her people by withdrawal from public displays of philanthropy. For many
years she did not open Parliament, but she did open hospitals. She spent about ten
per cent of her private income on charitable giving. This can be compared with
F. Prochaska Women and Philanthropy in 19th Century England (Oxford, 1980);
F. Prochaska, ‘Philanthropy’, in F.M.L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of
Britain, 1750–1950 (Cambridge, 1990), vol. 3, pp. 357–93; F. Prochaska, The Voluntary
Impulse: Philanthropy in Modern Britain (London, 1988); F. Prochaska, Philanthropy and
the Hospitals of London: the King’s Fund 1897–1990 (Oxford, 1992); F. Prochaska, Royal
Bounty: the Making of a Welfare Monarchy (Yale, 1995).
Prochaska, Royal Bounty.
Ibid., pp. 110 ff.
Ibid., p. 78.