Holt's Military Banking
Holt's Military
Banking
Holt's Military Banking is a trading name of The Royal Bank of Scotland, a
subsidiary of NatWest Group, offering
dedicated banking facilities to service personnel in the United Kingdom and on
operational tours of duty overseas. It can trace its origins to a Mr. Vesey,
army agent to the 23rd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, in Dublin in 1802.
Holt's
currently serves 35,000 British military personnel customers and manages 900
non-public business banking accounts.
History
William, Nugent and John Kirkland
William
Kirkland began as army agent to the 1st
(Royal) Regiment of Foot in 1809. In 1815, he was succeeded by his brother, Nugent
Kirkland, who was joined by his nephew John Kirkland in 1822 and retired from
business in 1825. Nugent Kirkland brought with him Vesey's Irish agency, having
been the 23rd Dragoons's Paymaster. In 1818, John Kirkland had been appointed
by HRH The Duke of Kent as agent of
the 7th (Royal Fusiliers)
Regiment of Foot and, in 1824, Lord
Palmerston appointed
him General Agent for the War
Office.
The
role of army agent involved keeping the accounts of regiments, distributing
pay and subsidies, dealing in supplies of clothing and equipment
and administering claims for pensions and injury.
Holt & Co.
In
1863, Vesey Weston Holt was appointed army agent of the 16th (Bedfordshire) Regiment of Foot and joined Sir
John in partnership. On the death of Sir John in 1871, Holt became sole partner
and the firm was renamed V.W. Holt & Co. He was succeeded
by his son, Vesey George Mackenzie Holt, in 1881.
In
1884, Percy Shute Lawrie joined Sir Vesey, bringing the agency founded by his
grandfather in 1780 and the firm was styled Holt, Lawrie & Co. until
1891.
Links
were forged with the Royal
Navy,
through the 1915 acquisition of naval agents Woodhead & Co. and with
the Royal Air Force, through the offer of
part of the newly-formed service's pay agency to Holt & Co. in 1918.
Glyn, Mills & Co.
Following
Sir Vesey's death in 1921, Holt & Co. merged with the private bank of Glyn,
Mills, Currie & Co., briefly becoming Glyn, Mills, Currie, Holt
& Co. until a further merger with Child & Co. in 1924, when the
name was shortened to Glyn,
Mills & Co.,
with both Holt's and Child's carrying on as separate operations.
The
squirrel emblem, still in use today, dates back to at least the 1920s.
In
1931, Glyn, Mills & Co. was acquired by The Royal Bank of Scotland and
Holt's and Child's continued as branches of Glyn, Mills & Co. The
Royal Bank of Scotland had acquired the struggling Williams Deacon's Bank (and the
prestigious Western Branch of the Bank
of England)
in 1930 and the combined company came to be known as the Three Banks Group.
Royal Bank of Scotland
In
1969, The Royal Bank of Scotland merged with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland to form the
National and Commercial Banking Group. While the Scottish branches were
merged into the Royal Bank, Glyn, Mills & Co. and Williams Deacon's Bank were merged with
the English branches of the National
Bank (a
National Commercial subsidiary) to form Williams and Glyn's Bank. As there was no longer any advantage in operating separately,
Williams and Glyn's was itself absorbed into The Royal Bank of Scotland in
1985.
Following
the introduction of the military salary in 1970, the Army and Royal Air Force
pay agencies were not renewed and the pay department was closed.
In
1976, Holt’s opened an office in Farnborough and the business was brought
together there when RBS Holt's branch in Whitehall was closed and transferred
to the nearby Drummonds
branch in
1992.
Services
In
2003, Holt's expanded the scope and range of its services and launched the
"Military Centre of Excellence" in Farnborough, where it holds
accounts for the vast majority of Army Regiments, as well as a large proportion
of Navy Ships and RAF Stations. It is authorised as a brand of The Royal
Bank of Scotland by the Prudential
Regulation Authority.
Holt’s
offers personal banking facilities to regular and reserve service personnel,
veterans and their families and, given the many similarities, has extended its
proposition to Foreign
and Commonwealth Office diplomatic and consular staff. It also provides financial
services expertise to Royal Navy Ships and Bases, British Army Regiments and
Corps and to Royal Air Force Stations, as well as a number of military
associations and charities.
In
2015, Holt’s Military Banking, National
Westminster Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland signed the Armed Forces Covenant.
Holt's
is a corporate partner of the Army Sports Control Board and sponsor of
the Royal Military Academy Boxing Club.
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