Society-wide
History of Demerara Mutual since 1891
The Society was formed in Georgetown in September 1891 to offer affordable life assurance to working people, at a time when only foreign insurers operated in the colony. The dates below come from the Society’s own centenary review and its annual reports.
- Incorporated
- September 1891, by Ordinance
- Sponsor
- Hand-in-Hand Mutual Guarantee Fire Insurance Company
- Guarantee capital
- $100,000 from 41 guarantors
- Head office
- Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown, since 1927
Timeline
From a colonial ordinance to offices in four countries
Founding years1891 to 1913
- 1891
Founded in Georgetown
The Hand-in-Hand Mutual Guarantee Fire Insurance Company sponsored the first locally owned life assurance company in British Guiana. Forty-one guarantors, among them the Bishop of Guiana and two doctors who then served as the Society’s medical advisers, put up the $100,000 of guarantee capital. The Society was incorporated by Ordinance in September 1891 to offer affordable life assurance to working people.
- 1892
The first policies
Applications opened in January 1892 from the Hand-in-Hand office: 59 in the first month and 146 by the end of the second. The first death claim, paid in 1895, returned $1,000 on $40 of premiums.
- 1894
The first mortgage
The Board agreed in March 1894 to lend on property and granted the first mortgage the following month, on a house in Kingston, Georgetown. Mortgage lending has continued ever since.
Into the West Indies1914 to 1950
- 1914
Home Purchase Plan and the West Indies
A plan that cleared the mortgage on death, with fire cover included, launched in February. In December the Society appointed its first agents in St Kitts, Barbados, St Lucia, Dominica and Antigua; the first policy outside British Guiana went to a policyholder in St Kitts early in 1915.
- 1926
One annual general meeting
Members replaced the half-yearly general meetings with a single annual general meeting, the form the Society still uses.
- 1927
The head office
The Society bought the former Colonial Bank building on High Street, now Avenue of the Republic, which it had rented since 1922. It has been the head office ever since; the first annual general meeting was held there in November 1927.
- 1928
Trinidad and Barbados
Branch offices opened in Trinidad and Barbados, and an agency in Grenada followed in the 1930s. The Society described its Caribbean business from the start as a way of drawing the territories closer together.
- 1945
After the Georgetown fire
The Society lent its building to the Royal Bank of Canada, whose premises were destroyed in the fire of 1945, and worked from the Hand-in-Hand building until March 1948.
Growth and change1951 to 1999
- 1951
Scholarships
The Directors announced a medical scholarship at the University College of the West Indies. Members still approve an appropriation for charity and education at every annual general meeting.
- 1978
Atlantic Gardens
The Society began the Atlantic Gardens housing development on the East Coast of Demerara. From 1979 the Trinidad business passed to a local company under that country’s localisation policy.
- 1991
The centenary
One hundred years of business, recorded in a centenary review by the Guyanese historian Hugh “Tommy” Payne. By then the Society had been chaired by 18 people and managed by 11 chief executives.
- 1993
Demerara Fire & General
The wholly owned subsidiary, incorporated in November 1992, began writing fire, motor and general insurance in Guyana on 1 July 1993.
This century2000 onwards
- 2012
Grenada restored
The Society’s three-storey building at Granby and Melville Streets in St George’s, bought in 1995 and damaged in the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, was rebuilt and extended. The Grenada branch moved in during 2013.
- 2023
ISO 9001:2015
The quality policy statement under ISO 9001:2015 took effect on 27 March 2023, signed by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chairman.
- 2025
Essequibo
A new office opened at Suddie on the Essequibo Coast, and the Society reported total assets of G$49.4 billion at the year end.
Sources
Where these dates come from
The years 1891 to 1991 are taken from The Century in Review, the centenary booklet written for the Society by the historian Hugh “Tommy” Payne from the Society’s minute books and the National Archives. Later dates come from the annual reports, which are published here each year after the annual general meeting.
Talk to an agent
Review your cover with an agent
Request a callback and an agent will go through the policies you hold and what you could add.
Request a callback