Alexander Munro
Alexander Munro was one of the first people to be employed full-time by Prudential. An early company history wrote that he was ‘the first of thousands of officials who found their careers in the Prudential service. He served the company faithfully for twenty years… and had a part in the creation of what thirty years later was to be described as “The Mighty Prudential”.
Alexander Munro was born in Scotland in 1834. His birth certificate officially recorded his name as ‘Monro’ but he seems to have used both spellings interchangeably during his lifetime. Although it is likely that he had worked for Prudential on a supernumerary capacity for some time, he officially joined the company in 1852 as only the second full time member of staff.
Prudential was founded in 1848 and by the early 1850s had begun to grow in confidence; employing permanent staff and moving to larger office premises at Ludgate Hill. By 1856 Prudential employed two clerks: Munro and Gillespie (the latter had been recruited to look after the Industrial Department). Throughout the nineteenth century, the rapid growth of the Clerks’ Department matched the growing size and prestige of the Company. From relatively modest beginnings, Prudential become the largest British life company by 1898. In 1858 Munro led a small team of six clerks, by 1870 this had grown to 125 clerks and three years later Prudential employed approximately 200 clerks.
Like all Prudential clerks, Munro’s duties comprised receiving and sorting proposals, entering details into policy registers, keeping ledgers, checking and dealing with correspondence, processing claims, auditing agents returns and recording the details of premiums. Until 1855 all clerks worked a full day on Saturdays. The office also opened on Boxing Day and a small skeleton staff attended on Bank Holidays to pay claims. A rigorous system of checking every type of entry resulted in an exceptional standard of accuracy. There were years when not a single posting error was made in sending out thousands of pieces of mail. Munro was said to have spent many evenings searching out a penny lost among the figures – the only error of his 20-year career.
After spending his entire working life at Prudential, the last ten years as Company Accountant, Alexander Munro died in November 1872 after a long illness. He was 48 years old. Although he was unmarried, the Directors made a large grant to his sister in recognition of his services.
