Reviewed by Michael J. Mepham Heriot Watt University

In 1985, the manuscript memoirs of Edwin Waterhouse (one of the founders of Price Waterhouse) were discovered and Edgar Jones, whose earlier work on Accountancy and the British Economy, 1840-1980, [1981], was received with much acclaim, was asked to edit the eleven large volumes. The memoirs were written when Edwin was in his 60’s, but for the period up to 1869 they are based on detailed diaries which he maintained. Together with an appendix, the writing continues up to the year of his death (1917). This book is an edited version of the memoirs together with a useful introductory chapter and extensive notes and references by Edgar Jones.

Edwin Waterhouse (1843-1917) was the youngest of seven children in a Quaker family, whose Quakerism went back for several generations. His father, Alfred Waterhouse, was a pros-perous Liverpool cotton broker, but the family moved from Liverpool to Bristol (and later to Reading) during Edwin’s boyhood. At the age of 15, he became a pupil at University College School, London. Subsequently, he was a student at University College, and he graduated from that college in 1860. In the year following his graduation (at the age of 20), he entered the office of Coleman, Turquand, Youngs and Co., an important city firm of accountants, as a trainee. He stayed with this firm for three years.

The section of the memoirs dealing with his accountancy training is not particularly informative, but he does say that “on the whole” his time with the firm was interesting and that he obtained a “considerable variety of experience”. Although there were no professional accountancy examinations at that time (prior to the founding of the English Institute of Chartered Accountants), Edwin did take, and pass, examinations of the Institute of Actuaries.
In 1864, Edwin put up a brass plate and began to practice on his own account. One interesting job that he specifically mentions as arising during his first year in practice, is work on a costing system for John Fowler, a Quaker manufacturer and inventor of the steam plow. It seems that much of his early professional work came either from his family or from his Quaker contacts and Quaker names crop up throughout his memoirs.

In 1865, Edwin entered into partnership with Samuel Price, who had almost 20 years experience in accountancy, and Wil-liam Holyland, with whom he had worked at Coleman, Tur-quand, Youngs and Co. Waterhouse became the junior partner in the new firm of Price, Holyland and Waterhouse. When Holyland retired in 1874, the firm’s name was changed to the more familiar Price, Waterhouse and Co.

Coleman, Turquand, Youngs and Co. had specialized in company liquidation work. Waterhouse was also involved with a number of important insolvencies during his long professional life, and he lectured on the topic. In the second half of the 19th century, auditing work was increasing in importance and Price, Waterhouse and Co. also developed in this area. Edwin was particularly active in the audit of railway companies and banks. He was also the auditor of Oxford University and the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey. There was, however, a great variety of other work including financial investigations and arbitration. Edwin’s descriptions of some of this work, and some of the frauds that he encountered, are particularly interesting for the accounting historian. In 1870, he was involved in devis¬ing a profit sharing scheme which attempted to avoid conflict between labor and capital. He undertook several industrial arbitration assignments and volunteered his services in one case. He was also involved in the important Neuchatel Asphalte Company case which clarified the law on the writing off of wasting assets.

In his earlier book, Edgar Jones has noted the connection of the early accountancy profession with non-conformist sects. Edwin Waterhouse’s career is an example of this phenomenon. In their early adulthood, however, Edwin and his brothers and sisters (perhaps as a revolt against the perceived strictness of their Quaker sect) joined the Church of England, although Edwin did this without renouncing his membership of the Society of Friends. Much later during his presidency of the English Institute of Chartered Accountants (when his “nominal membership” was queried by the Society), he made it clear that he still considered himself to be a Quaker. His local “Monthly Meeting” of the Society accepted this position.

Edwin Waterhouse’s manuscript is (to date) the only com-plete autobiography of a founder of one of the major interna-tional accountancy firms. Its importance is enhanced because its author was also a leader of the profession in the early years of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He was a member of that Institute on its formation in 1880. In 1887, he was elected to the council, and he held the position of president from 1892 until 1894.

The memoirs are not restricted to accounting matters since they contain much fascinating detail of the day to day life and concerns of a remarkable Victorian family. The chronicle of Edwin’s ascent to the top of his chosen profession is interwoven with the success stories of two of his brothers, Theodore and Alfred, who also established themselves in their chosen profes¬sions. Theodore, a lawyer, became a respected member of the Council of the Law Society, and Alfred rose to the Presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The book will thus be of interest not only to accounting historians, but also to social historians. This reviewer concurs with the editor’s note that “It is in some respects a real Forsyte Saga, a narrative of the rise and achievements of a successful upper-middle-class family, reveal¬ing their motives, abilities, prejudices and preoccupations.”