On 29 June, Brian Winterflood passed away in his sleep at 86 years old. I came across the news while scrolling through my Financial Times feed and explored more. My research has moved in strange and pleasant ways to learning more about financial markets, particularly the Bombay Stock Exchange back home in India, and its vast and historical apparatus of economic actors and embedded cultures, networks and norms. Winterflood spiked my curiosity. Who was he? What was his contribution? Apparently huge, especially to financial history.

Winterflood started his career in financial services in 1953, first at a stockbroking company and later at the London Stock Exchange, where he helped set up the now famous Alternative Investment Market in the 1980s. He was also associated with development of CISCO. He founded Winterflood Securities in 1988 as a ‘market jobber’, which was acquired in 1993, but Winterflood served in a non-executive role until his retirement in 2017. He was conferred the title of an MBE for his contribution to the financial services.

Winterflood supported several charities including the Stock Exchange Benevolent Fund, and Save the Children, and partly funded this school. He was a patron of the Natural History Museum, Museum of London, and The Science Museum.

Ok, this is the plain summary of his life and highlights of his career.

What about his contribution to financial history? Quite a bit. Winterflood participated in several financial history research projects and offered oral histories that draw a sketch of his life and stockbroking at the LSE. Consider this anecdote from one of his interviews for an oral history project where his teacher at school asks him:

“Well Winterflood, what would you like to do when you grow up?”

Winterflood: “Well one thing I don’t want to do is I don’t want to be a chef.”

…

“Well if you want to make some money, go where money is made.”

Winterflood: “What’s that sir?”

“The London Stock Exchange”

Son of a bus driver, Winterflood had to drop out of school as his father couldn’t pay school fees. But he rose to become a legendary figure in the small company market, becoming synonymous with small company trading. But at the London Stock Exchange, he began his career at the lowest rung. Yet, he called his journey ‘absolutely magical’.

This article elaborates on his journey:

”Winterflood’s roots stretch right back to the Big Bang reforms of the Thatcher government that revolutionised the City,transforming it into an international trading powerhouse. It was set up by Brian Winterflood and a handful of colleagues, when they left County NatWest, which was then the investment division of the high street bank.

Brian Winterflood was one of the most influential figures in the City from the Big Bang through to his retirement, from full-time work at least, in 2016 when he left the brokerage that still bears his name. His own career began before the end of post-war rationing — as a messenger at Greener Dreyfus & Co from 195, he filled stockbrokers’ inkwells —  and outlasted the era of lavish lunches of the 1990s.

He was a keen advocate of making it easier for fast-growing small companies to get a stock listing, support which helped open the way for London’s Alternative Investment Market. Winterflood was also vocal opponent of the London Stock Exchange’s mooted merger with its German rival Deutsche Boerse, which ended up being blocked by the EU on competition grounds. He also spoke out against big-name fund managers, calling some members of the profession “over-hyped” while also voicing doubts about the rise of passive-investing tracker funds.”

Speaking of his experience during the great bear market of 1973-74, he told The Guardian: 

”My overwhelming memory is that, after the great shake-out and sell-off, there was nothing for anybody to do.

‘Nobody was doing any business, no matter how low prices went. It was a wonder we didn’t all get the sack. The standard joke in Christmas 1973 was that the broking firms were all offering partnerships or turkeys as a gift, and they ran out of turkeys.

I remember somebody calculating that the whole of the Jaguar car company was worth the same as 50 of their cars, which shows how far prices had fallen.

‘The Bank of England issued a statement saying it was not going bust. A lot of us took other jobs just to supplement our income. Some of my stockbroker mates ran stalls in Petticoat Lane and Portobello Road, and I opened an antique shop called Floods in the New King’s Road.”

In an interview with him, the City AM said:

‘The veteran was instrumental in obstructing the London Stock Exchange’s attempts to merge with Deutsche Boerse in 2000, becoming something of an unofficial spokesman for the smaller brokers and investors who objected to the tie-up.

But his fondest memories come from much earlier in his career., the report quoted him:

”According to Winterflood, the best (and worst) moment in his career spanning 60 years (excluding a two-year stint of National Service) was getting authorised to trade in the first place.

“On the one hand, coming to the end of the learning process was hugely exciting. You would watch what the other members of the team were doing and think ‘oh yeah, I can do that’, but suddenly having that freedom was terrifying!”

“There was a wonderful atmosphere on the trading floor at the London Stock Exchange. There’s a constant rush of adrenaline and everyone is pitting their wits against everyone else.””

In various interviews, he gave a sense of his work and motivations, including here, here and here, if you are curious and want to read more.

Last but not the least, Winterflood has a biography on his life (currently out of stock!):

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-jobber/brian-milton/9780955545221

R.I.P. Winterflood.

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