GEACH, Charles (1808-1854), of The Dales, Harborne Hill , near Birmingham, Warwickshire

A prosperous provincial banker, Geach, a Liberal free trader, was an ‘authority’ on financial issues during his brief Commons career.1E. Edwards, Personal recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham men (1877), 130. ‘Tall, and stoutly built’, Geach had a ‘bright, clear, fair complexion, and an ample brow’. His face would have been ‘strikingly handsome but for an undue preponderance of the under jaw’. Apparently possessing the ‘largest head in Birmingham’, its ‘extraordinary size’ meant that ‘his hats … always had to be specially made for him’.2Ibid., 125, 130.

In 1826, aged eighteen, Geach, a native of Cornwall, was appointed to a clerkship at the Bank of England.3The appointment was perhaps a result of Geach’s connections, especially his uncle, the mayor of Penryn, and J.W. Freshfield, MP for Penryn, and solicitor to the Bank: A.R. Holmes and E. Greene, Midland: 150 years of banking business (1986), 14; S. Kinsey, ‘Geach, Charles (1808-1854)’, www.oxforddnb.com. Two years later he moved to Birmingham to establish a new Bank branch in the town. Over the next eight years he rose to be second clerk at the Birmingham branch and gained a reputation amongst local businessmen for ‘industry, perseverance, sagacity, and courtesy’.4Edwards, Personal recollections, 125. Having limited opportunities for further promotion within his branch, in 1836 he helped to establish a new bank, the Town and District, but the consortium behind the venture unexpectedly appointed another manager and Geach was ‘left out in the cold’.5Ibid., 60. A second group of businessmen then approached Geach and as a result, at the age of 28, he became manager of the new Birmingham and Midland Bank, popularly known as ‘the Midland’.6Ibid., 61. He acted as manager until 1846, thereafter as managing director.7Holmes and Greene, Midland, 340.

Although it was a joint-stock bank, in many respects the Midland was run more like a private bank, and Geach’s experience ‘enabled him to avoid the errors into which so many joint stock banks have fallen’.8Ibid., 33; Illustrated London News (1852), xxi. 378. The bank did not issue its own notes, instead issuing Bank of England notes which Geach managed to secure at a preferential rate from his old employer.9Kinsey, ‘Geach’. Most of the bank’s business involved discounting bills of exchange rather than risky investments, and a recapitalisation in 1837 also enhanced the bank’s long term chances of survival.10Kinsey, ‘Geach’; Holmes and Greene, Midland, 18. Thirty years later the mayor of Birmingham, Thomas Avery, said of Geach:

Possessing great creative genius, great power of organisation, and considerable monetary and financial skill, he laid the foundation of the bank on a deep, sure, lasting principle.11Bankers’ Magazine (1867), xxvii. 933.

Geach’s ‘extraordinary’ business acumen was also evident in a series of shrewd investments.12Gent. Mag. (1855), i. 89. He bought up the underperforming Rotherham-based Park Gate Iron Manufacturing Company ‘for an old song’ from a group of Birmingham businessmen in 1842 and proceeded to make a fortune when the railway boom doubled the price of iron.13Edwards, Personal recollections, 127. In 1838, he established another business, the Patent Shaft and Axle-Tree Company, to develop a device invented by a dissenting minister. Geach bought out his other partners in the company in 1844 and the railway boom turned his axle-tree patent into a ‘lucrative monopoly’, which in 1846 generated £20,000 profit.14Gent. Mag. (1855), i. 89; Holmes and Greene, Midland, 30-1; Edwards, Personal recollections, 127-8. Geach held numerous railway directorships and was also a partner in a large manufactory in Dudley.15Ibid., 128.

Geach was also active in the public life of Birmingham. He was closely connected to the Birmingham MPs Joshua and William Scholefield, and actively campaigned for them at election time.16Ibid., 129. He was a magistrate, and was elected to the town council in 1838, appointed as an alderman in 1843 and in 1847 served as mayor. During his time in municipal office he applied his ‘great financial knowledge’ to make ‘great improvements’ in the council’s financial management.17Ibid. A committed free trader, he had links to the Anti-Corn Law League and was one of the leaders of the local campaign in Birmingham.18Gent. Mag. (1855), i. 89.

In April 1851 Geach successfully contested the Coventry by-election, with the backing of the National Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association (NPFRA). He declared support for free trade, but distinguished himself from his Liberal opponent by endorsing radical political reform.19P. Searby, ‘Weavers and freemen in Coventry, 1820-1861: social and political traditionalism in an early Victorian town’, Univ. of Warwick Ph. D. Thesis (1972), 363. Although he was an Anglican, Geach’s opposition to the ecclesiastical titles bill caused some dissatisfaction in the constituency, but he was still re-elected unopposed at the general election the following year, after a Conservative challenger withdrew.20Searby, ‘Weavers and freemen’, 363-7.

At Westminster, Geach was generally associated with radicals who advocated financial and political reform, many of whom had commercial or manufacturing backgrounds. On one occasion he expressed the view that government should be more business-like: [I]n almost all the Government offices there were people holding permanent appointments who were obstructive of anything like improvement; and it required a Committee of that House, composed of persons who were accustomed to business … to do anything effectual.21Hansard, 18 July 1854, vol. 135, c. 407.

Geach supported Gladstone’s financial policy, the abolition of the ‘knowledge taxes’ and measures extending free trade, a notable exception being his vote against Joseph Hume’s motion to repeal the remaining protective duties on imports, 3 Mar. 1853.

Geach ‘was not a fluent speaker … but, as he never spoke except on topics with which he was perfectly familiar, he was listened to with … respect and attention’.22Edwards, Personal recollections, 130. He cast votes in favour of NPFRA’s programme of political reforms embodied in Hume’s proposed ‘little charter’, which consisted of triennial parliaments, the secret ballot, household suffrage and more equal electoral districts, 25 Mar. 1852. He opposed the expenses of elections bill which would ‘put down the expression of popular feeling’, especially by non-electors, by limiting the use of emblems, music bands and flags, 15 July 1853.23Hansard, 15 July 1853, vol. 29, c. 342. Geach endorsed European liberal movements, and hosted Louis Kossuth when the Hungarian patriot visited Birmingham.24Edwards, Personal recollections, 130. However, he condoned Louis Napoleon’s 1851 coup d’état in France, saying that when visiting the country there had been ‘an almost universal feeling of satisfaction’ at the measure.25Hansard, 3 Feb. 1852, vol. 119, cc. 118-19 (at 118).

He resisted proposed regulations which would impose more costs on railway companies, and thought it ‘desirable’ that MPs with railway interests be represented on relevant select committees.26Hansard, 28 July 1851, vol. 118, cc. 1633-4; ibid., 9 Dec. 1852, vol. 123, c. 1203. Despite his general preference for laissez-faire, Geach thought that legislation was needed on assurance associations to protect the public.27Hansard, 8 Mar. 1853, vol 124, cc. 1329-30. He suggested that associations be registered and conform to some minimum standards so as to provide some ‘guarantee for the character of the societies’.28Ibid., c. 1330. Geach was a staunch supporter of the 1844 Bank Charter Act and criticised the ‘Birmingham school’ represented by Richard Spooner, MP for North Warwickshire, who argued that the rigid monetary system caused fluctuations and distress.29Hansard, 21 Mar. 1854, vol. 131, cc. 1123-4. However, Geach opposed the 1854 bills of exchange bill, which he deemed unnecessary, and joined Spooner in resisting attempts to establish a government arms manufactory at Enfield, which he thought would be inefficient compared to private enterprise, especially the Birmingham small arms trade.30Hansard, 27 Feb. 1854, vol. 130, cc. 1418-19; ibid., 1, 4 Aug. 1854, vol. 135, cc. 1084-5, 1091, 1353-4.

Exhausted by his parliamentary and commercial responsibilities and suffering from ‘intermittent diarrhoea’, Geach suffered an ‘internal disorder’ whilst recuperating in Scotland in autumn 1854, which caused his left leg to become ‘ulcerated’.31Edwards, Personal recollections, 131; The Times, 2 Nov. 1854. His condition rapidly deteriorated, and he died that November. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Skally Geach, who was killed less than a decade later after falling off his horse.32Gent. Mag. (1864), ii. 398. Before his death, the directors and shareholders of the Midland had voted Geach ‘a magnificent service of plate’ and a ‘fine-full length portrait’, which was placed in their boardroom.33Edwards, Personal recollections, 131. The latter, which was ‘a very excellent characteristic likeness’ of Geach, is still possessed by HSBC plc, which purchased Midland Bank in 1992.34Ibid.; Kinsey, ‘Geach’.