Grindlays
Captain Robert Melville Grindlay (1786 - 1877)[4] established the firm, Leslie & Grindlay, in London in 1828, to arrange secure passage to and from India for customers and their baggage. Initially based in Birchin Lane near Lombard Street in London, the company acted as agents to organise travel arrangements and provide advisory services for their clientele, particularly East India Company employees and British officials.[5][6] Expansion of the business saw the opening of several other offices in the City of London (Cornhill and Bishopsgate) and Westminster (Whitehall and St James's Square).[2]
In time, under the guidance of Capt. R M Grindlay, the firm added private banking, insurance, and other financial activities to its menu of services, and operations expanded to include Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and elements of Africa. The acquisition of additional partners during this period, caused the firm to change its name to Grindlay, Christian & Matthews in 1839 and then Grindlay & Co. in 1843.[7] When Grindlay eventually retired in 1842, the firm had become "the most distinguished bankers and agents to the civil and military officials of the business community and the British Army in India".[8]
The firm remained based solely in London until 1854 when offices were opened at Calcutta in 1864 and then Bombay in 1865.[9] These offices were largely autonomous, administered from London, until the local partners interests were bought out in 1908. Additional branches were opened in Simla (1912), Delhi (1923), Lahore (1924) and Peshawar (1926).[2]
Grindlays was regarded as "pre-eminently bankers to the Indian Army", concentrating in areas of important civil or military headquarters, and undertook little commercial banking.[2] The failure of army bankers, MacGrigors in 1922 and then the Alliance Bank of Simla in 1923,[10] encouraged the Grindlays partners to seek the security of a larger organisation. In 1924, the Bank was acquired by the National Provincial Bank, converted into a company and allowed to operate independently as Grindlay & Co Ltd.[2] When National Provincial decided to exit overseas banking in 1948, it sold Grindlays to the National Bank of India, in which it took a small share position.
