7 April 1916 25 May 2014
03 JULY 2014
Geoffrey Heywood was born in Blackpool in 1916 and attended Arnold School. He won a scholarship to Cambridge, but his father encouraged him to follow a career instead. He began work at the Refuge Assurance Company in Manchester, qualifying as a Fellow of the Faculty in 1939, at the young age of 23.
He joined the Royal Artillery at the outbreak of war, serving in North Africa, Italy, Palestine, Greece and Crete, reaching the rank of Major. He was made MBE in 1944, and mentioned in despatches in 1945. He married Joan Lumley in 1941.
After the war Geoffrey joined a small firm of consulting actuaries in Liverpool, Duncan C Fraser & Co (DCF). He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute in 1946, and became senior partner of DCF in 1952, remaining so until he retired in 1986.
Geoffrey was actuary to many pension schemes including the National Water Council and BP.
He established the Universities Superannuation Scheme in Liverpool in 1974, now the largest in the UK. He was the actuary to the Manchester Superannuation Scheme from 1949 and worked there with Sir Harry Page, the Manchester City Treasurer, to persuade the Treasury to allow extended investment powers, eventually permitted under the 1956 Manchester Corporation Act.
Geoffrey believed "each man is a servant to his profession" and was president of the Institute from 1972 to 1974 - the first consulting actuary to hold that post.
He was a founding member of the Association of Consulting Actuaries and founded the International Association of Consulting Actuaries with the late Max Lander. He was deputy chairman of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board from 1975 to 1985; a director of Barclays Bank Trust Company from 1968 to 1986; a director of the Barclays Unicorn Investment Group from 1977 to 1985 and a member of the National Bus Council from 1975 to 1985. Geoffrey served on the 1973 Page Committee to review National Savings.
He was the founding master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries in 1979. The company now has a Royal Charter and makes considerable annual charitable contributions.
Geoffrey's wife Joan died earlier this year after 72 years of marriage. He leaves behind two children, Ted and Corinna.
Obituary by the Worshipful Company of Actuaries