CHARLES GEACH, M.P.

I mentioned, in the sketch of Mr. Gillott, that all the members of the
Edgbaston Quoit Club had very large heads, and that this fact seemed
to bear out the phrenological theory, that size of head was indicative
of mental power. As a further proof I may mention here, that the late
Mr. Charles Geach had the largest head in Birmingham. I was told by
the tradesman who used to supply him with hats, that such was the
extraordinary size of his head, that his hats had always to be
specially made for him. The theory in his case certainly was fully
justified, for if ever a man lived who had powerful mental qualities,
it was the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch.

Mr. Geach was born in the county of Cornwall, in the year 1808; and at
a suitable age took a situation as junior clerk in the head office of
the Bank of England, in London. There, his quickness, accuracy, and
ready grasp of complicated matters, soon proved to his superiors that
he was no ordinary youth, and he was rapidly promoted. In 1826, when
the branch was established in Birmingham, Captain Nichols, the first
manager, who had noticed Geach at work, sought and obtained permission
from the directors to include him in the staff of clerks which he
brought down. Geach, accordingly, at the age of 18, came to the town
with which his whole future life was destined to be connected.

For ten years he worked assiduously as a clerk, rapidly rising in
position at the bank, quickly attaching to himself a large circle of
friends, and gradually securing amongst business men a character for
industry, perseverance, sagacity, and courtesy. In 1836 he was engaged
in the establishment of two of the local banks, and in August of that
year he became manager of the Birmingham and Midland Bank.

Mr. Geach, in the days of his great prosperity, often referred with
manly pride and becoming modesty to these early days. I remember some
twenty years ago his coming down specially from the House of Commons
one night to take the chair, at the Temperance Hall, at a meeting of
the Provident Clerks' Association. In the course of his remarks that
evening, he spoke of the mercantile clerks as a body for whom he
should always feel sympathy; a class to which he felt it to be an
honour to have once belonged, and from which he himself had only
so recently emerged. He mentioned then, that "when he first came to
Birmingham some twenty-five years before, he di