Abstract
The Patriotic Fund at Lloyd’s was established in 1803 by a group mainly of maritime insurance brokers, bankers and merchants in the City of London, following the return to war after the Peace of Amiens. The leading early donors formed the Committee that made all the decisions for the disbursement of the funds raised.The Fund’s aim was to help protect Britain by encouraging zeal in the Royal Navy and the Army. It did this through presenting awards for bravery, particularly presentation swords, and by providing pensions for those injured and widowed by the war.
This thesis examines their work in the period until they stopped presenting the awards for bravery in 1809. This was declared at the time as due to financial reasons, however, this thesis demonstrates that this was a misleading statement and in reality the Fund spent far more on other purposes. Rather it was a change in the nature of the war and, therefore, a change of what the Committee believed would best support the Armed Forces as part of their perceived covenant of support that was the real motivation.
Comparison with US and French awards of presentation swords helps demonstrate this, along with an examination of why prior to stopping awarding bravery with presentation swords the Fund added two new areas, support of prisoners of war and education, to its mandate.
This thesis contributes to a better understanding of the mercantile links and the industrialisation of the military complex that permeated the supporting charities.
| Date of Award | 1 Jul 2021 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Andrew Lambert (Supervisor) |