Charles Geach

Charles Geach (1808 – 1 November 1854) was a prominent English businessman, industrialist, banker and politician of the early to mid-19th century, strongly associated with banking and manufacturing interests. He was a co-founder and the general first manager of the Midland Bank, the first treasurer of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a prominent investor in several major engineering businesses, and MP for Coventry from 1851 to his premature death, aged 46, in 1854.

Geach was born in St Austell, Cornwall, and through family connections in Penryn secured a junior position at the Bank of England. A diligent employee, he was selected to establish a branch of the bank in Birmingham in 1826. He became well-known and trusted in the city, helping establish two new banks, but despite his efforts to establish the first, the Town and District Bank, founded on 1 July 1836, he was not appointed manager.

Almost simultaneously, however, when local businessmen believed the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank needed a rival they approached then 28-year-old Geach to be its first general manager. Founded on 22 August 1836 and initially based in Union Street, the joint-stock company's starting capital was a very modest £28,000, but the Birmingham & Midland Bank quickly proved to be a successful enterprise, eventually acquiring two private banks in 1851; purchase of the 'Stourbridge Old Bank' of Bate and Robbins provided the Birmingham and Midland Bank's first branch.

Increasingly courted by regional commercial and manufacturing business people, Geach become a prominent Midlands figure, elected an alderman in Birmingham 1843–44 and mayor in 1847, and was elected to Parliament as MP for Coventry in 1851, whereupon he resigned as general manager of the Midland Bank.

Geach also invested in various businesses, becoming a partner in several firms that would capitalise upon the railway boom, including: the Patent Shaft and Axletree Works, at Wednesbury, of which he eventually became sole partner in 1844; the Woodside Iron Works and Foundry (later Cochrane & Co), near Dudley; and the Park Gate Iron and Steel Company, Rotherham with Samuel Beale; he also became engaged in railway contracts, being a director of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway companies. Only his premature death prevented another potentially lucrative investment in Beyer, Peacock and Company.

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