Australian Dictionary of Biography

George Heynes Spence (1886-1958), insurance manager, was born on 23 November 1886 at Wallasey, Cheshire, England, son of William Robert Spence, commercial clerk, and his wife Ellen Eliza, née Haycox. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute and School of Art and at a commercial school. Like his father, he joined the staff of the Royal Insurance Co. Ltd at its head office in Liverpool. He migrated to Melbourne in 1913 and was employed there by 'the Royal'. Next year he took over the management of the accident business in Melbourne and Sydney of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Co. Ltd.

In 1917 Spence joined the state insurance branch of the New South Wales Treasury which carried on a form of self-insurance of state property. On 24 December that year he married Nellie Francis Creaton in Melbourne. He was appointed in 1926 deputy manager of the Government Insurance Office of New South Wales which was formed to ensure that compulsory insurance by employers of workers' compensation risks could be implemented. He was promoted general manager in October 1929. A considerable problem of organization was involved and fell heavily on Spence. A more worrying burden was that successive governments made material alterations in the functions of the GIO. As manager and adviser, he trod a difficult path during the second Lang government and the Depression.

A new general manager was appointed in 1943 when the GIO was reconstituted as a crown corporation: Spence became deputy general manager. Although the office secured a virtual monopoly of the recently introduced compulsory third party (motor-car accident) insurance, its control did not fall directly on Spence who managed a wider business. During World War II he was appointed secretary of the Commonwealth Marine War Risks Insurance Board and was largely responsible for its successful operation.

Spence was deeply religious, with Brethren beliefs, and did not seek self-advancement. His general manager feared that he and Spence might have difficulties, but instead they became firm friends. Spence was meticulous in his work, and did not suffer fools gladly; his hobby was fishing. When he retired to his home at Gordon in 1951, he was spoken of as the 'virtual founder' of the GIO — the insurance branch of the Treasury with a staff of four had grown into the largest general (non-life) insurance office in New South Wales. Survived by his wife, son and two daughters, Spence died of coronary vascular disease in Royal North Shore Hospital on 3 April 1958 and was buried with Brethren forms in Northern Suburbs general cemetery.