Monica Allanach

Career Allanach joined the Prudential Assurance Company in 1938 as an actuarial trainee. In 1974 she was promoted to Actuary (UK), and held that position until her retirement in 1981. She was its honorary secretary from 1972 to 1974 and its vice-president from 1976 to 1979.

In 1977, Allanach was appointed by the Secretary of State for Trade, Edmund Dell, to his panel of insurance advisers. She retired from the panel in 1980.

In 1954 she and Pat Merriman and others began a series of informal meetings, such as tea-parties or wine and cheese parties, for the small minority of women in the profession, from which developed the Lady Actuaries Dining Club (LADS).

Selected publications

Legacy Allanach's writing, including a 1964 paper 'The treatment of expenses in the calculation of ordinary branch premiums', was required reading for exams at the Institute of Actuaries.

Personal life Allanach was a member of the Friends of the Girls' Public Day School Trust, serving as its Honorary Treasurer from 1962–1972. She lived near Wimbledon, and had a keen interest in tennis. She did not marry, and believed that she would not have been promoted to senior positions had she done so. In July 1981, she was made a Freeman of the City of London.