Sir Robert Bignold disclosed today that he had resigned as president and chairman of the Norwich Union insurance Company and denied that his retirement at the age of 71 had anything to do with the forced resignation of a Jewish baron, Lord Mancroft, from the firm’s London Advisory Board.
The resignation of Lord Mancroft under Arab boycott pressure last December sparked worldwide protests and a formal rebuke to Arab diplomatic representatives in London by the British Government. Lord Mancroft was subsequently offered reinstatement but declined.
Sir Robert said the controversy was as “dead as the dodo” and, in response to a question as to whether he had been forced to resign as a result of pressure from any “Jewish lobby,” he repeated that his retirement had nothing to do with the Mancroft case. He added that he had no reason to think that Jewish-placed insurance had been taken from the company or that it would be taken away.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
