ABSTRACT
With the granting of its charter on 15 September 1857, Mercantile Bank had achieved an objective that had been in its sights since the bank was conceived in 1853. The winding up of the ‘old bank’ had been agreed by the shareholders on 11 January 1858 and the liquidation of the Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China would commence on 1 July 1858 concurrently with the commencement of business of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China. Following the style of the East India Company and other companies incorporated by Royal Charter, the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China appointed a Court of Directors - although this was frequently also described as the Board of Directors. The first directors were:
William Howard Donald Larnach
William Sollory Grey Thomas Stenhouse George Garden Nicol Alexander Anderson
Chairman (Director of London Joint Stock Bank and Bank of New South Wales) (Messrs Grey and Coles) (E Bates and Co., Bombay) (Buchanan, Hamilton and Co.) (Manager at head office and ex officio director)
There was continuity and a familiar ring to three names on the Board. William Howard had been chairman in Bombay of the old bank through out most of its first four and a half years, Thomas Stenhouse had been a director of the bank in Bombay and Alexander Anderson had been the manager in London since the bank was first established. Donald Larnach
and W. S. Grey had been members of the London Board of the old bank and were two of the signatories to the petition for the charter. Stenhouse soon resigned from the Board and returned to Bombay and in his place G. P. Robinson, the bank’s former Bombay manager and ex officio director on the old Board in Bombay, was appointed a director, thus giving the Board further continuity during its transition from a Bombay bank to a British, chartered bank. The Board was soon strengthened further by the appointment of George May of the firm of May, Mathewson, and Co., who had been long connected with Calcutta (see Appendix 43).
