200 years of Sun Life

Starting small

In 1810, the Sun Fire Office Board launched a life assurance company from two rooms in Bank Buildings on Cornhill in the City of London. The company’s first employee was Joshua Milne, an actuary, who was employed on a salary of £300 a year and stayed with us for 33 years.

A famous visitor

The offices had visits from many people looking for life assurance, including, in 1838, a young Charles Dickens, who had completed his Pickwick Papers the previous year. He wrote in his diary about his visit to Sun Life, but, unfortunately for him, the Board decided that he worked too much, and therefore turned down his proposal!

First in class

By 1900, Sun Life was the first company to offer life assurance without the need for a medical – something we’re still proud to be offering today.

Tough times during the war

Sun Life evacuated its head office at the outbreak of war in 1939. The company lost two London branches in the Blitz, as well as branches in Canterbury and Plymouth. After the temporary HQ was also destroyed, Sun Life found a new wartime home at Dorking: ‘Ribblesdale’ – a 20-room house standing in an acre of grounds.

Changing times

We take computers for granted these days, but in 1959 Sun Life entered the technological age when our first computer was delivered. This crude card-punching data storage device was so big it had to be hoisted on scaffolding to the specially strengthened third floor of the company’s headquarters!

From the 1970s, Sun Life split its headquarters between London and Bristol. Since then we have continued to build on the Sun Life heritage and now we have over 30 years experience of the over 50s market, and are the leading provider of over 50s life cover**.