Post by Simon Miller

Possibly the very last day of what remains of AXA Health’s Phillips House where I spent much of my early health insurance career. AXA Health (and before that, AXA PPP healthcare, Private Patients Plan and London Associates) goes back to 1938 - older than the NHS! Not always in this building, but for a large chunk of that time. The exec meeting room was at the top of the building in this photo, where we would host client and partner meetings with a patio veranda and one of the best views over Tunbridge Wells. I believe it may have previously been a “penthouse apartment” for board members visiting while taking in the Royal Spa town waters. The staircase leading up to it was lined with large, ornate portraits of former chairpersons, all looking suitably serious and important. Whilst none were stroking a white cat, the portraits always gave me a slight sense of foreboding, but mostly reverence for the people who came before us. Although, I think I might recall one or two depicted with cigars in hand? Not entirely aligned with today’s ideas of wellbeing perhaps, but very much responsible for helping shape private medical insurance in the UK as we know it today. Good memories alongside ex colleagues such as Neil Fisher Jonathan Bowyer Mark Howes Richard Cooper Fidelma Harris Neil Atkinson Helen Chesterton Barbara Wright (nee Auckland) Martin Bellingham Tom Woolley ACII Chartered Insurance Broker Ian Taskis Nigel Oliver Nigel Newland Liz Pocock Leigh Pearce Matthew Aston Neil Wilkins Diane Morrison Charlotte Neal Claire Fussell Gavin Shay Chris Tomkins Mike Davis Paddy Ryan Sallie Hare Martyn Rowe Andrew Morfey Christopher Gilbert and many, many more.