| Code | DS/UK/263 |
| Surname | Greene |
| Forenames | Benjamin Buck |
| Dates | 1808 - 1902 |
| Epithet | Deputy Governor (1871 - 1873); Governor (1873 - 1875) |
| Activity | Benjamin Greene was born in Suffolk in 1808. He was educated at Bury's King Edward VI Grammar School. In 1837, with his father, he established Benjamin Greene & Son, West India merchants and shipowners, and on his father's retirement, formed another partnership with his brother in laws, James and Henry Blyth as Blyths and Greene, merchants and shipowners, although Benjamin Greene & Son continued until about 1848.
Greene became a Bank of England Director from 1850 to 1900, Deputy Governor from 1871 to 1873, and Governor from 1873 to 1875. 'His careful management left London relatively untouched by the 1873 financial crisis which swept continental Europe and North America, an achievement seemingly without precedent. With H. H. Gibbs, he gave important new direction to the bank's monetary policy, using bank rate to protect reserves through the attraction of gold from abroad—the so-called Greene & Gibbs policy. During the 1890 Baring crisis, with Bertram Currie he was selected by the Bank of England — although not its first choice — to investigate and confirm the solvency of Barings as justification for the bank's rescue through a loan secured by a £17 million guarantee provided by the banking community. His own £10,000 contribution was somewhat modest.'
Listed as the direct descendant of Benjamin Greene (father) who was a claimant and beneficiary of the slave economy.
He died at Midgham on 3rd April 1902. |
| Source | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
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