Blue Plaque to Andrew Weir

[Finkenwerder]

A brief account of the Blue Plaque saga for Andrew Weir (Lord Inverforth):

The initial application was made to English Heritage for a plaque on one of Weir's London houses - he had three between 1905 and 1955. English Heritage turned down the application on the grounds that his profile was not compelling enough! So Jimi Henricks got one but not a man who founded a shipping empire that employed thousands of people at sea - Bank Line, MacAndrews, United Baltic, Inver Tankers, etc., and many more in the various City of London offices and others around the world. He ensured that all his ships were built in UK thus supporting the UK shipbuilding industry (no doubt while driving a hard bargain in the process!). During and after WW1 he was appointed by Lloyd George to reorganise and improve the process of armaments and stores supply to the Army on the Western Front and when the war ended he oversaw the disposal of materiel from the front and other duties world wide. For all the service he gave to the nation he was enobled as Baron Inverforth of Southgate (Lord Inverforth).He donated a large portion of his land in London to the local council in the Southgate area for the public good and funded the ornate gates to one of the parks there. He worked at the office until well into his 90s and died in 1955.

The next attempt was made to the City of London Corporation for one of their plaques with the intention of placing as near to what was 21 Bury Street as possible, preferably on one of the side walls of the Baltic Exchange. All went well and the City made encouraging noises. When covid struck things ground to a halt as the Corporation's offices were closed. This was followed by a large reduction in their cultural and heritage department and a subsequent reduction in that department's budget. This meant that all costs and necessary work regarding planning permissions, property owner's consents, etc., would fall to the Bank Line Association. Sadly such work and costs could not be supported by the Association and thus the application was withdrawn. So at present no plaque.