Frederick John Alban

Sir Frederick John Alban (11 January 1882 – 2 May 1965) was a chartered accountant, administrator, and writer.

Biography

He was born and grew up in Abergavenny, attending the National School until the age of 12. His parents both died when he was still a child, and he was brought up by a relative whilst his older brothers went out to work.^[1]

Soon after a move to Pontypridd at the age of seventeen, he began training in accountancy. In 1907 he won first place in the final examination of the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants (achieving the same distinction in the finals of the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors and of the Institute of Chartered Accountants). He worked briefly for the United Water Board of Pontypridd and Rhondda, and subsequently for the Welsh National Insurance Commission and the Ministry of Food in Wales. Thereafter, with Norman Ernest Lamb they established the firm of Alban & Lamb, chartered accountants, of Newport and Cardiff.^[1]

He was President of the Society of Incorporated Accountants in 1947.^[2] A critic of nationalisation, he gave a speech to the American Institute of Accountants in Chicago and another to the Charter Institute of Secretaries in Montreal, Canada, saying that the process had been "bungled" in the UK and had not done the coal industry any good. He also stated that the creation of the National Health Service meant that "incentive is gone".^[3]

Published works

• Rating Accounts and Finance under the Rating and Valuation Act (F. J. Alban, Norman E. Lamb, and F. E. Price, 1925)
• Socialisation in Great Britain and its Effects on the Accountancy Profession (F. J. Alban, 1954).^[1]

References