Wikipedia

Monica Allanach

Monica Christine Allanach was a British actuary. She was the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Institute of Actuaries.

Monica Allanach
Born
Monica Christine Allanach[1]

1920/1
England
Died14 September 2013[2]
NationalityBritish
OccupationActuary
Known forBeing the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Institute of Actuaries

Early life and education

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Allanach's father died when she was four,[2] and she was brought up by her widowed mother.[2] She was educated at Wimbledon High School from 1931–1938.[2][3] She was good at mathematics at school, and her teachers suggested that she become an actuary.[4]

Career

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Allanach joined the Prudential Assurance Company in 1938 as an actuarial trainee.[5] She qualified as an actuary in 1951.[2] Women had been permitted to gain membership of the Institute of Actuaries for thirty years, but by 1951, less than one dozen women had become fully qualified.[2] Allanach was moved to the male salary scale at Prudential in 1960, several years before the company introduced a single, non-gendered salary scale.[5] She was appointed as the Deputy Actuary at the Prudential Assurance Company in 1970, thus becoming the first woman to reach management level at the company.[5][6] In 1974 she was promoted to Actuary (UK),[7][8] and held that position until her retirement in 1981.[2]

She became a member of the council of the Institute of Actuaries in 1968, the first woman to be elected to the council.[2][9][10] She was its honorary secretary from 1972 to 1974[11] and its vice-president from 1976 to 1979.[2][12][13]

In 1977, Allanach was appointed by the Secretary of State for Trade, Edmund Dell, to his panel of insurance advisers.[2][14][15] She retired from the panel in 1980.[16]

In 1954 she and Pat Merriman and others began a series of informal meetings, such as tea-parties or wine and cheese parties, for the small minority of women in the profession,[2][17] from which developed the Lady Actuaries Dining Club (LADS).[2] LADS was wound up in 2011, by which time the Institute of Actuaries had its first woman president, Jane Curtis.[18]

Selected publications

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  • Allanach, Monica (May 1982). "Women Actuaries in the UK" (PDF). The Actuary. 16 (5): 4–5. Retrieved 15 November 2019.

Legacy

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Allanach's writing, including a 1964 paper 'The treatment of expenses in the calculation of ordinary branch premiums', was required reading for exams at the Institute of Actuaries.[2] In 2015, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries held a Monica Allanach lecture.[19]

Personal life

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Allanach was a member of the Friends of the Girls' Public Day School Trust, serving as its Honorary Treasurer from 1962–1972.[2][3] She lived near Wimbledon, and had a keen interest in tennis.[2][5] She did not marry, and believed that she would not have been promoted to senior positions had she done so.[4] In July 1981, she was made a Freeman of the City of London.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Deceased Estates". The London Gazette (60638): 18978. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Fellows, Derek (7 November 2013). "Obituary: Monica Allanach". The Actuary. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  3. ^ a b "File GDS/C: Scrapbook of Monica Allanach, almuna [sic] of Wimbledon High School 1931-1938". Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  4. ^ a b Verity, Christine (21 February 1971). "How to take a seat in the boardroom". The Sunday Telegraph. No. 522. London, England. p. 8. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Shamoon, Stella (10 October 1970). "Woman from the Pru climbs another rung". The Daily Telegraph. London, England. p. 20. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Business appointments". The Times. No. 57988. London, England. 5 October 1970. p. 18. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Prudential Has New Chief General Manager". Financial Times. No. 26, 167. London, England. 21 September 1973. p. 25. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Appointments. Prudential Assurance". Birmingham Daily Post. Birmingham, England. 22 September 1973. p. 5. Retrieved 16 November 2019 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Appointments. Prudential Assurance". Birmingham Daily Post. 27 June 1968. p. 21. Retrieved 16 November 2019 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ Kamm, Josephine (2013). Indicative Past: A Hundred Years of the Girls' Public Day School Trust. Routledge. p. 204. ISBN 9781134531677. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  11. ^ "Appointments. Institute of Actuaries". Birmingham Daily Post. Birmingham, England. 15 February 1973. p. 5. Retrieved 16 November 2019 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ Allanach, Monica (May 1982). "Women Actuaries in the UK" (PDF). The Actuary. 16 (5): 4–5. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  13. ^ "Latest appointments". The Times. No. 60238. London, England. 16 February 1978. p. 14. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Insurance post". The Daily Telegraph. No. 37994. London, England. 26 July 1977. p. 21. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  15. ^ "Appointments". Financial Times. No. 27, 331. London, England. 26 July 1977. p. 37. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Appointments". Financial Times. No. 28, 232. London, England. 1 August 1980. p. 21. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  17. ^ Gluyas, Andrea (May 2016). "Women Actuaries in New Zealand" (PDF). President's Newsletter: New Zealand Society of Actuaries. p. 7. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  18. ^ Pryor, Louise (7 November 2011). "Inspired by Ada Lovelace". Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  19. ^ Cooper, Deborah (October 2015). "Bias busting". The Actuary: 9. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
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