Henry W. Marsh
c. 1910
Born
Henry Wheelwright Marsh

(1860-05-01)May 1, 1860
Waltham, Massachusetts
DiedApril 13, 1943(1943-04-13) (aged 82)
Lake Wales, Florida
Education
OccupationInsurance executive
Spouse
Agnes Elizabeth Power
​
​
(m. 1904)​

Henry Wheelwright Marsh (May 1, 1860 – April 13, 1943) was an American insurance executive who co-founded the insurance brokerage firm Burroughs, Marsh & McLennan, which later became Marsh & McLennan.

Early life

Marsh was born on May 1, 1860, in Waltham, Massachusetts.[1][2] He was a son of merchant Thomas Jefferson Marsh (1830–1891), and Helen Eliza (née Whitney) Marsh (1837–1923),[3] and was a descendant of colonial settlers.[4]

He graduated from Philips Exeter Academy in 1881 before attending Harvard University, from where he graduated in 1885.[1]

Career

At Harvard, c. 1885

After Harvard, he went to Chicago where he began working for the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company before transferring to R. A. Waller & Co.[1]

In 1905, Marsh and co-founders Donald R. McLennan[5] and D. W. Burroughs founded the insurance brokerage firm known as Burroughs, Marsh & McLennan. Upon Burroughs retirement the following year, the firm was renamed Marsh & McLennan. Marsh and McLennan introduced the "concept of a broker acting as a buyer of insurance representing the client, rather than as a seller of insurance" and helped to pioneer the concept of risk management.[6] By 1917, the year the United States entered the war, Marsh & McLennan had established offices throughout the country.[6] Marsh retired in 1923.[4]

Marsh was also the patron of anti-communist Jacob Nosovitsky, a Russian revolutionary who became a spy for the U.S Department of Justice.[7]

Life in England

An Anglophile,[7] Marsh spent many years in England renting storied English country estates, including Medmenham Abbey in Buckinghamshire and Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.[1] Beginning in 1914,[8] for several months on an annual basis until 1926, Marsh rented Warwick Castle in Warwickshire from the Earl of Warwick. Marsh returned to America in February 1915 aboard the Lusitania just two months before it was torpedoed in May. His wife stayed at Warwick where she entertained soldiers.[9]

His wife, Agnes, entertaining wounded soldiers at Warwick Castle on October 6, 1915, during World War I

In 1917, the Marshes bought Bylaugh Hall and 736 acres of parkland in Norfolk (while still holding the lease to Warwick Castle).[10] Reportedly, the Marshes separated in 1926 and Agnes made her home at Bylaugh together with her mother and sister, Genevieve Power Wilkinson, who had married Sir Russell Wilkinson.[11][12] In 1933, Agnes sued him accusing him of diverting income "to his own pocket" from a $1,000,000 trust fund set up for her by him.[13]

Personal life

On September 24, 1904, Marsh was married to Agnes Elizabeth Power (1876–1947) of Boston. A daughter of Richard Power of London, her mother was Alice Anne Rice and her stepfather was David Rice, who later came to live at Bylaugh Hall. The Marshes did not have any children. His summer home was at Winchester, Massachusetts and when in New York, he stayed at the Hotel Plaza.[1]

After a short illness, Marsh died at his winter home in Lake Wales, Florida on April 13, 1943.[1] His widow died in 1947 at Bylaugh Hall.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Henry W. Marsh, Insurance Man, 82; Co-Founder and Ex-Chairman of Marsh & McLennan Dies in Winter Home in Florida; Began in Chicago in 1885; Firm Had Large Industrial Accounts--He Once Leased Historic Warwick Castle". The New York Times. April 14, 1943. p. 23. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  2. ↑ Class of 1885 Harvard College Secretary's Report No. VII Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. Cambridge: The University Press. 1910. pp. 188–189. Retrieved April 26, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Virkus, Frederick Adams (1926). The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy: First Families of America: A Genealogical Encyclopedia of the United States. F. A. Virkus & Company. p. 91. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Henry W. Marsh". The Boston Globe. April 14, 1943. p. 16. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  5. ↑ "D. M'Lennan Dead; Insurance Leader; Chairman, Founder of Marsh & McLennan Once Director of 99 Corporation". The New York Times. October 15, 1944. p. 44. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  6. 1 2 MMC Milestones Archived May 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. 1 2 McCormick, Charles Howard (2005). Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers. University Press of America. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-7618-3132-7. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Marsh Rents Warwick Castle". The New York Times. London (published February 23, 1914). February 22, 1914. p. 4. Retrieved April 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Sutherland, Graham (January 31, 2017). Warwick in the Great War. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4738-6055-1. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  10. ↑ Beckett, Matthew (February 22, 2013). "Bylaugh Hall: the hidden history to a remarkable restoration opportunity". The Country Seat. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Bylaugh Hall (Bylaugh Park)". www.thedicamillo.com. DiCamillo. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Old English Furniture". The Daily Telegraph. May 20, 1935. p. 24. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Mate Withholds Income, Wife Says". New York Daily News. April 25, 1933. p. 11. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  14. ↑ The Times, May 14, 1947, p. 1
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