To the glory of God and in ever loving memory of Sir William Capel SLAUGHTER Of White Ness Kingsgate Thanet And 18 Austin Friars London EC Born May 11th 1857 Died march 10th 1917 (Have Photo) Just for Interest, History of the Firm that the above Sir William Capel Slaughter set up History William Slaughter and William May Slaughter and May was founded on 1 January 1889 by two young solicitors, William Capel Slaughter and William May. Slaughter was the son of Mihill Slaughter, Secretary of the Railway Department of the Stock Exchange, and Ann Erskine Capel Slaughter. William's family benefited from the railway boom, which stimulated a great deal of activity on the Stock Exchange. He was privately educated, did not go to university, but went directly into legal training. Articled in a Southwark-based law firm, he was eventually appointed as an assistant solicitor at one of the City's leading commercial practices, Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co. William May was a product of a land-owning family which could trace its ancestry back to the sixteenth century, but which in recent generations had sent many sons into the professions. Both his father and grandfather were surgeons (the latter was a founder member of the British Medical Association). May went to Charterhouse and Oxford and was an excellent scholar. He was known for his literary and artistic bent: he read profusely and produced reams of verse. He was also musically gifted. He played the piano and cello well and composed and published music. Throughout his life he retained a great love of the outdoors and climbed Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. He met William while training as an articled clerk at Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co. Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co. had very few partners. Three men handled the affairs of more than 300 companies. Slaughter worked alongside Morris, but within a few years assumed complete responsibility for some of the clients. Some of his clients, including Baron Emile d'Erlanger, were among the firm's most influential. Within a few years William set up his own office and asked William May to join him. Established in the City When Slaughter and May set up their new practice, they took Baron Emile d'Erlanger with them. In addition they were offered work by Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co. D'Erlanger brought a great deal of African and South American mining and railway business. He also introduced them to Schroder and Company and to railway contractor George Pauling. One new client, the Home and Colonial Stores, generated vast amounts of work: the growth of working class income in the late nineteenth century meant there was a huge demand for tea and certain foods. The firm's first offices were in 18 Austin Friars, backing onto Throgmorton Ave, home to Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co. The offices were fairly rundown, however, so the firm bought several of the neighbouring buildings, demolished them and constructed a new building, completed in the spring of 1892 - still one of the most attractive buildings in the City. A chef and housekeeper were taken on and the custom of lunching together began before 1895. The period from 1890 to 1914 was a golden age for solicitors. Slaughter and May flourished. Partners travelled surprising distances on behalf of their clients, long before travel became commonplace. Trips to New York, Brussels, Ireland and Paris are recorded. Among the firm's clients were Mr Alfred Nobel, Mr Joseph Pulitzer and Captain O'Shea. World War I Business declined during the war period with bills rendered falling by almost 50% in the first three years of war. At that time Slaughter and May had five partners and was regarded as a large practice. One of the most important partners was William Egerton Mortimer who was to become the City's foremost expert in financial law. Saturday working was common, with partners taking it in turns to come in every other Saturday. Weekday hours were generally from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., although staff sometimes worked longer hours. A severe reduction in staff due to war casualties prompted the firm to employ women for the first time. Partners were allocated war work. Slaughter was given the important task of sitting on the Royal Commission on Sugar Supplies, where he attempted to keep prices low enough for people to afford. Some of the firm's most important clients found themselves being termed "enemy aliens" - for example Baron Bruno Schroder. Slaughter made an urgent appeal to the Home Secretary on his behalf. Baron Bruno was granted naturalisation and a licence to reside and trade, personally signed by the King. The last royal licence to be granted in this way had been in 1855, during the Crimean War. Slaughter received a knighthood "for services to the nation" in 1915, but tragically did not live long after. In 1917 he died of cancer, just short of 60, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. After World War I Most members of staff were able to return after 1919, although the lack of articled clerks until 1924 suggests how few young men there were. More women were taken on as secretaries or in clerical posts. The partnership continued to expand very slowly - one assistant had been employed for 16 years before promotion - with partners earning roughly double that of the assistants. As May withdrew from day-to-day work, Mortimer became the forceful personality within the firm. In the inter-war period Slaughter and May had more of the City's merchant banks among its clients than any other law firm. The firm acted for Barings, Rothschilds and Morgan Grenfell among others. Many of the banks were involved in making foreign loans and issues to European countries eager to rebuild and modernise their war-damaged cities. William May died in 1932 aged 69. He was buried in Sutton Park near Guildford. World War II During the Second World War, the fortunes of the firm declined once more. By the summer of 1940, six of the partners and a third of the staff had entered the services. Only five partners remained in the office. A bomb destroyed the nearby Dutch Church on 15 October 1940, leaving Number 18 windowless. The building's sub-basement was used as a shelter and the staff continued their drafting or dictation underground when interrupted by sirens. Documents were ferried nightly to and from one of the partner's houses in Ealing. Partners shared firewatching duties with the staff. At about this time, many of the partners were seconded to the new and highly secret Special Operations Executive, or SOE. Some of the firm's assistant solicitors also went to "Baker Street", as the SOE became known. Its purpose was to co-ordinate non-military, clandestine resistance abroad by means of sabotage and subversion. One of the partners - Jack Beevor - worked under the cover of an Assistant Military Attaché at the British Embassy in Lisbon, gathering intelligence, keeping track of secret activities in Spain and laying plans for the destruction of key resources in the event of a German invasion of Portugal, a life for which he claimed his training as a solicitor served him well! Another partner, Harry Sporborg, was very close to the centre of power, serving as assistant to General (later Sir Colin) Gubbins, chief of SOE from September 1943. And Geoffrey Vickers held the important post of Director General of the Economic Intelligence Division of the Foreign Office. Christopher Clarke, later a Senior Partner of the firm (1964 - 71), had the misfortune to become a Japanese prisoner of war for three and a half years. Throughout the war, Slaughter and May's telephonist, Elsie Smith also known as "Smithie", wrote letters and sent Postal Orders and parcels from the firm's "Fund" to staff in the Forces. Some of the war time correspondence survives. Smithie married Arthur Lawrence, who became head of the Costs department. Post-War Challenge 1945 - 67 The first few years following the war were harsh, with fuel and paper in short supply. The office building was bitterly cold and the light poor. Most staff worked in their overcoats and constantly re-used scraps of paper. Some of the returning men found it difficult to adjust to their former lives and several partners left to join different businesses. However, the long hours spent firewatching had drawn some of the staff together and helped generate a slightly less formal atmosphere. There was a new air of opportunity, with office boys rising through the ranks to become partners. New departments sprang up within the firm in response to the changes brought about by the war. As mass rebuilding got underway, the conveyancing department was founded. By the 1950s, an altogether more stable period, Slaughter and May had many of the largest companies in the country as clients, together with groups of companies in the same industries, such as brewing, film distribution and motor car manufacture. American companies - especially banks opening up branches in London - and small companies came to the firm. Personal contact and word-of-mouth was as important as ever in attracting new business. By the mid-50s, the number of partners hit the ceiling of 20, the legal limit of partnership size, causing concern that younger and brighter members of staff might leave to pursue careers elsewhere. The total number of staff rose from about 120 in 1946 to about 220 by 1960. Various of the new specialised departments were forced to move to new buildings as Number 18 became too cramped. With the lifting of the limit of 20 partners in 1967, and the further growth in numbers of staff, a move was inevitable. Move to Basinghall Street In 1967 the Registrar's department of the National Provincial Bank vacated 35 Basinghall St. Slaughter and May took over the whole of the premises, more than twice the size of Number 18. By 1972, the firm acquired part of 4 Coleman St. By 1981 and 1982 the adjoining Gillett House was occupied, and by 1986 the whole of Austral House was acquired. Throughout the 70s and 80s work became even more international and now more and more members of staff travelled the world. One member of staff in the new Paris office recalled a week in which he caught 16 flights. Passports issued to these partners frequently ran out before their time because of all the visas required. Slaughter and May set up offices in Brussels, Paris, Hong Kong (the first British law firm to do so) and Tokyo. The speed at which work can be carried out has increased dramatically. Before the 60s, most correspondence was produced on manual typewriters, duplicated by means of carbons or hand-cranked machinery and delivered by post or by hand. Clients requiring draft documents accepted that preparing them might take a week. The arrival of the photocopier, word processor and the worldwide web has changed all that. More Recently During the 1980s, the firm acted on a huge number of the privatisations instigated by the Conservative Government, including British Aerospace, Amersham International, Associated British Ports, British Airways, Enterprise Oil, Sealink, Jaguar and British Telecom. The last was the first of the really gigantic privatisations and occupied more people for a longer and more intensely laborious period than any previous matter and demanded co-ordination of efforts and timings on an international scale. It placed the firm in good stead when instructed by the Government on further privatisations of British Aerospace, Britoil, BP, British Gas, British Steel and the electricity industry. Move to One Bunhill Row All our London staff are once again housed under one roof, in offices designed specifically to meet the requirements of a modern international law firm. The building provides us with an excellent and unrivalled working environment in which to provide a top quality service to all our clients.