Buckmaster & Moore facts for kids

Buckmaster & Moore (B&M) was a London company that helped people buy and sell shares, known as a stockbroker. It started in 1895 and became a very important firm in the financial world. In 1987, a large global company called Credit Suisse Group bought Buckmaster & Moore. The company was later reorganized and eventually closed in 1996.

How It Started

The company Buckmaster & Moore was founded by Charles Armytage-Moore and Walter Selby Buckmaster. Walter Buckmaster first joined the Stock Exchange in 1895. Charles Armytage Moore joined in 1903. Their partnership as Buckmaster & Moore began around 1905.

Both founders had attended Repton School and were excellent sportsmen. Walter Buckmaster was a top polo player. He even won silver medals in the 1900 and 1908 Olympic Games. He also helped his team win the International Polo Cup in 1902. Charles Moore played cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Their company became very successful. They had offices in London at 64 Cornhill and later at 52 Bishopsgate. They were known for helping many private clients manage their money.

Important People at B&M

Over the years, several interesting people became partners at Buckmaster & Moore.

One partner was Oswald Toynbee Falk. He joined the firm after working for the government. Falk started to develop new ideas about how the economy works. He later wrote many financial papers and books that are still studied today.

Another partner was Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell. He served as an intelligence officer during the First World War. After the war, he worked as a diplomat and then for the Bank of England before joining B&M. He later became a managing director at another big bank.

Maurice Bonham-Carter was also a partner. He was a politician and a first-class cricketer. He worked as the main private secretary for the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, from 1910 to 1916. He was also a leading figure in the Liberal Party (UK). His granddaughter is the famous actress Helena Bonham Carter.

A very famous client of the firm was John Maynard Keynes. He was a well-known economist. At one point, he worked with Oswald Falk on financial projects.

In the late 1920s, two young men who later became famous worked at B&M. One was Francis Pakenham, who became Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford. The other was a mathematician named J. H. C. Whitehead. Both decided that working in the financial world was not for them.

Walter Buckmaster lived at Moreton Manor and was involved with fox hunting. He passed away in 1942. Charles Moore lived in Surrey and passed away in 1960.

B&M in Later Years

By the 1970s, Buckmaster & Moore had grown into a large stockbroker firm. It was one of the biggest managers of "discretionary funds" in London. This meant they had permission to make decisions about buying and selling shares for their clients. This was quite new at the time.

The firm managed money for many important clients. These included several colleges at Cambridge University and even the Church in Wales. This gave Buckmaster & Moore a very strong position in the financial world.

In the 1970s, younger partners took over the firm. They wanted to expand the business. They started to offer research ideas to large companies. They also wanted to grow their investment management services. The financial world was changing, and new ways of investing were being introduced. The firm brought in many new partners from different backgrounds.

Life at B&M in the 1980s

Marcus Padley, a stockbroker and writer, remembers working at Buckmaster & Moore in the 1980s. The offices were located at Bishopsgate in London.

In those days, stockbrokers had to start work very early, around 8:30 AM. Many firms offered a cooked breakfast to their employees before the 9:30 AM meeting. The partners even had a butler who served their breakfast in the boardroom.

The way share prices were displayed was very different from today. There was one large TV screen that showed prices. An active stock price might change only a few times a day. Many prices did not change at all. The overall stock market index, like the FTSE All-Share Index, would only move a little bit.

Prices were updated by people called "orange buttons." They would walk around the stock exchange floor and ask "jobbers" if any prices had changed. The jobbers were people who bought and sold shares. They would sometimes pretend prices had changed to create more trading.