Sir Anthony Tuke (Chairman 1973-1981)

Anthony Favill Tuke (1920-2001) was the son of Anthony William Tuke, and the third Tuke to hold the Barclays reins in the space of forty years. Educated at Winchester and at Cambridge, he served with the Scots Guards during World War Two, and joined the bank in 1946 at Hampstead High Street branch.

After gaining experience at several other branches he was promoted in 1952 as a local director at Luton, also holding a local directorship at Cambridge from 1957, retaining both posts until 1963 when he moved to Birmingham local head office. His succession to the chair followed the customary pattern of appointment to the main board of Barclays in 1965 and the vice-chairmanship in 1972. He was also on the board of Barclays DCO (renamed as Barclays Bank International in 1971), from 1966 and was elected Chairman in 1972, thus holding both chairs until stepping down from the latter in 1979.

During his leadership, Barclays maintained its position as the UK’s largest bank, continuing the policy of trying to capture the custom of wage earners who had previously never had a bank account. During the 1970s the Barclays branch network numbered over 3,000 offices, with virtually every town and suburb being served, in friendly rivalry with the other main banks. Competition amongst the banks, and between the banks and building societies, began to intensify with the beginnings of deregulation of financial services, and Barclays entered the field of home mortgages during Tuke’s time in office.

Tuke was an early enthusiast for ‘plastic money’ and oversaw the great expansion of Barclaycard, which during his period became profitable after years of pioneering development. Internationally, Barclays continued to adapt to the localisation of its original overseas businesses in Africa and the Caribbean, expanded in North America, secured a presence in the Far East, and re-entered Egypt. The main international problem of his chairmanship was the controversy over Barclays’ continued presence in South Africa during the apartheid era: Tuke stuck to a policy of arguing that Barclays could do more good by helping to force change from within, rather than selling out. This period also saw Barclays enter the field of merchant banking and lay the foundations for what later became a major investment bank.

In the wider banking world, Tuke served as deputy chair of the Committee of London Clearing Bankers and vice-president of the British Bankers’ Association, and in 1977 became the first British banker to be president of the International Monetary Conference. His outside directorships included chairmanship of Rio Tinto Zinc and of the Savoy Hotels Group. A keen sporting spectator, he was president of the MCC and chairman of the 1980 British Olympic Appeal. At his instigation, Barclays provided funding for Chris Bonington’s 1975 Everest expedition, and in 1978 helped to rescue the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was knighted in 1979 and remained on the Barclays board until 1990.