COVER STORIES
Insurer’s 325 years of claims.. from elephant breaking in to car to vicar’s leapfrog injury
YOU say a passing elephant put its trunk through the window to snaffle your lunch, and that’s how your car was wrecked?
And, Reverend, you claim you were playing leap-frog when you fell?
The weirdest mishaps from across the centuries have been revealed by insurance firm Aviva ahead of its 325th anniversary next month.
Another eyebrow-raiser was the man who injured his arm as his finger was caught in a woman’s corset while he saved her from drowning in 1888.
Some choice swear words might have been heard that same year when someone lost a toenail getting into bed. They were awarded £10.
Four years earlier a surgeon sustained a “poisoned hand” while unpacking a box of drugs.
Even those surrounded by luxury were not safe from freak accidents – a London hotel keeper was awarded £25 and 10 shillings in 1878 after being hit in the eye with a cork while opening a bottle of champagne.
But injury is not always to the person – a woman’s jewels were ruined in 1948 after she put them in the stove for safekeeping when she and her husband went away on holiday.
On their return, the husband lit the stove – with disastrous consequences.
And in 1975, a red setter that climbed into a car for a nap knocked it out of gear, causing the vehicle to roll down a slope and hit a brick post.
The athletic vicar was injured in 1875, and was awarded £120 for his when Aviva began life as the Hand-in-Hand Fire & Life Insurance Company injuries. And the hungry elephant struck in 1934, wrecking a Morris Minor as it passed by as part of a circus. After finishing the driver’s lunch it ended its meal with a loaf of bread. Aviva started life in 1696 as the Hand-in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Company. Its first policy was taken out on
January 15, 1697, and the first claim was paid on May 11 that year, when houses in Westminster were “damnifyed by fire”.
It evolved from an insurer for fire as people’s needs changed, and went on to cover homes, personal possessions, motoring, travel, health and personal injuries, pensions and investments.
Famous customers have included Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott, detective novelist Agatha Christie, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Victoria, George V and his Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
The quirky stories were unearthed by Aviva archivist Anna Stone.
She said: “It’s been a joy to have another opportunity to look at some of our oldest and quirkiest claims.
“Some of them never fail to raise a smile but, in each case, we’ve been there to help customers as they’ve faced the unexpected.
“Aviva’s origins can be traced back 325 years so, as we celebrate this landmark, I have enjoyed reminding myself of the likes of a driving red setter and a hungry elephant.
“We’re still adding to our log of unusual claims even today.”