| Code | DS/UK/249 |
| Surname | Grahame |
| Forenames | Kenneth |
| Dates | 1859 - 1932 |
| Epithet | Secretary (1898 - 1908) |
| Activity | Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh on 8 March 1859. 'On 1 January 1879, he had entered the Bank of England as a ‘gentleman clerk’—being the only clerk ever to have scored 100 per cent in the essay which was part of the qualifying test.....Grahame's career at the bank progressed rapidly. In 1888 he transferred to the chief cashier's office where Frank May was the incumbent. Here he became friends with Gordon Nairne, later to become chief cashier. After a few months he transferred, in 1889, to the secretary's office.....In 1898 he had reached the peak of his City career, having been appointed Secretary of the bank....The quiet tenor of life was interrupted on 24 November 1903, when one George H. Robinson entered the bank and fired at Grahame with a revolver. Grahame was unhurt and was instrumental in Robinson's capture. As the humorous journal Punch observed: ‘Mr Kenneth Grahame is wondering what is the meaning of the expression “As safe as the Bank of England”. On 27 April 1907, he entertained the children of the Prince of Wales (later George V) to tea at the bank. However, Grahame's record of ill health and short hours had come to the attention of the new governor, William Middleton Campbell (appointed in 1907), and in June 1908 he resigned from the bank, with a relatively low pension of £400 p.a.'
Kenneth Grahame is most famous for writing the children's' book, 'The Wind in the Willows', which was published just after his resignation from the Bank in October 1908. Grahame died on 6th July 1932. |
| Source | Part Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
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