Henry Pomeroy Davison

Henry P. Davison

Henry Pomeroy Davison (born June 12, 1867 in Troy , Pennsylvania , † May 6, 1922 in Locust Valley , New York ) was an American banker . He was the eldest of four children of George B. and Henrietta Pomeroy Davison. His mother died when he was eight years old. After completing his school education, he initially worked for two years as an accountant in a bank run by relatives. At the age of 21 he then moved to a bank in Bridgeport, the hometown of his wife Mary Kate Trubee (* February 2, 1871, † January 31, 1961). Three years later he moved to New York City , where he first worked at Astor Place Bank and became President of Liberty National Bank at the age of 32. A few years later he was instrumental in founding and building up the Bankers Trust Company. He then moved to JP Morgan & Company as a senior partner in 1909.

With the entry of the United States of America into the First World War in 1917, he was appointed Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross . In this role, he led a campaign to support the Red Cross, which in a short period of time raised around four million US dollars in donations and thus made it possible to finance Red Cross ambulances on the various fronts of the war. After the end of the war he initiated the creation of an international association of national Red Cross societies in order to better coordinate their aid activities, especially in times of peace. This League of Red Cross Societies was founded on May 5, 1919 by the Red Cross Societies of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the USA. Henry Davison was Chairman of the League from its inception until its death in 1922. He was succeeded within the League and the American Red Cross by John Barton Payne .

He died of a brain tumor at the age of 55 after two unsuccessful operations, leaving behind his wife and two sons and two daughters. A building at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY is named after his wife, who worked locally for the American Red Cross for two decades. His son Frederick Trubee Davison later became the director of human resources at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and his son Henry P. Davison Jr. was a director at Time Magazine .

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as the league has been called since 1991, awards the Henry Davison Award named after him in memory of its founder.

Works (selection)

• The Call to our Red Cross. Washington 1917
• The Red Cross: President Wilson's Proclamation. The Future of Our Work. Boston 1918
• The American Red Cross in the Great War. New York 1919

literature

• Davison, Henry Pomeroy. In: John N. Ingham: Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 1983, ISBN 0-31-323907-X , Volume 1, pp. 244/245
• Thomas W. Lamont: Henry P. Davison: The Record of a Useful Life. Arno Press, New York 1975, ISBN 0-405-06969-3 ; Original edition: Harper & Bros., New York 1933

Web links

• Henry P. Davison of Troy PA (Eng.)