Captain Thomas Bowrey left London for India in 1669 at just ten years old. By the time he returned two decades later, he had become a sailor, merchant, linguist, map collector and author, with a remarkable understanding of the risks involved in global trade.

In this special episode of Humanizing Insurance, created in support of the Insurance Museum’s After the Fire exhibition, I’m joined by Sue Paul, author of Jeopardy of Every Wind: The Biography of Captain Thomas Bowrey.

Sue tells the story of discovering Bowrey through an archive of papers hidden in an attic for more than 200 years. We explore how the plague, the Great Fire of London and his childhood voyage to India shaped a man who lived an extraordinarily dangerous life, but was, in many ways, deeply risk-averse.

We also look at Bowrey’s connection to the emerging marine insurance market. His papers reveal how merchants divided investments between ships, insured different stages of a voyage and relied on London’s coffee houses for intelligence about vessels, cargo and events overseas.

Among the stories discussed is the disastrous voyage of the Mary Galley, involving privateers, capture, imprisonment, insurance claims and arguments over who was ultimately responsible. We also explore the extraordinary case of the Worcester, whose seizure in Scotland and the execution of three members of its crew helped accelerate the political union between England and Scotland.

The conversation covers:

• Bowrey’s journey to India at the age of ten
• Independent merchants and the East India trade
• How merchants spread risk between ships and voyages
• Early marine insurance and the challenges of proving a loss
• The role of coffee houses as centres of intelligence
• The Mary Galley and its complicated insurance claims
• The Worcester and the formation of Great Britain
• Bowrey’s connection with Daniel Defoe
• His linguistic work, maps and written records
• Slavery, colonial trade and how we should assess his legacy today

Bowrey’s life takes us from plague and fire in London to trade across India and Southeast Asia, before returning to a rebuilt City in which coffee, information and insurance were becoming closely intertwined.

It’s a story of exploration, ambition, failure and contradiction, and a reminder that understanding risk is not the same as being comfortable with it.

About the guest

Sue Paul is the author of Jeopardy of Every Wind: The Biography of Captain Thomas Bowrey. Her research reconstructs Bowrey’s life through his surviving correspondence, trading records, manuscripts and the remarkable archive discovered more than two centuries after his death.

Further listening

You can also find previous Humanizing Insurance episodes exploring Edward Lloyd, Nicholas Barbon and the development of insurance following the Great Fire of London.

Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.

Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.

This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.

If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.

You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.

Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.

In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, Howard Benge of the Insurance Museum returns to the podcast to explore the life and legacy of Dr Nicholas Barbon, one of the most important and least understood figures in insurance history.

Best known as the father of fire insurance, Barbon was far more than that. He was a physician, a property developer, an economic thinker, a pamphleteer, an MP, and a man who helped shape London in the aftermath of the Great Fire. Together, Daniel and Howard unpack the world Barbon lived in: a city marked by plague, fire, religious conflict, political upheaval, and rapid commercial change.

They discuss how Barbon’s Fire Office helped create the foundations of modern insurance, from standardised policies and pricing to fire brigades, fire marks, and private capital backing risk. They also wrestle with the contradictions of the man himself. Was he a visionary who helped democratise financial protection, or an opportunist protecting his own property empire? As ever with history, the answer is more interesting than either extreme.

This is a conversation about the origins of insurance, but also about capitalism, catastrophe, urban rebuilding, and the kind of people who shape industries before anyone quite realises what they are building.

In this episode:

• Why Nicholas Barbon is known as the father of fire insurance
• How the Great Fire of London changed the future of property and risk
• The creation of the Fire Office and the earliest fire insurance model
• Fire marks, private fire brigades, and the roots of modern underwriting
• Barbon’s life as a doctor, developer, economist, and politician
• Whether history has judged him too harshly
• Why insurance history still matters now

Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.

Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.

This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.

If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.

You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.

Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.

Alan Demers spent 24 years at Nationwide, building a career in claims, leadership and innovation before stepping out to found InsurTech Consulting.

In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, we talk about what claims teaches you about people, pressure and decision-making, and why it remains one of the most misunderstood parts of the industry. Alan reflects on a career spent largely inside one organisation, what loyalty and longevity can give you, and the moments when staying in one place can make you wonder what you might be missing elsewhere.

We also explore leadership at scale, the reality of trying to build the “claims of the future”, and what Alan sees now from outside the insurance machine that he could not see when he was inside it. It is an honest conversation about innovation too: not the conference version, but the real thing, with all the bureaucracy, delay and frustration that comes with trying to change a complex industry.

This is a conversation about careers, conviction, claims, and the humbling experience of starting again after years at the top of a large organisation.

In this episode:

• How Alan found his way into insurance through claims
• Why claims is far more nuanced than many people realise
• What 24 years at one company gave him, and what it may have cost
• The tension between loyalty, longevity and moving to grow
• What leadership looks like when you are responsible for thousands of people
• How close the industry has really come to building the “claims of the future”
• What insurers still get wrong about innovation
• Why external networks matter more than many people think
• What it feels like to leave corporate life and build something of your own

Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.

Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.

This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.

If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.

You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.

Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.