Lockerbie Savings Bank

Lockerbie Savings Bank (1816-1982) was a past constituent of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

This savings bank was established in 1816 as Drysdale & St Mungo Parish Bank. In 1820 it was placed under the provisions of the 1819 Act for the Protection of Banks for Savings in Scotland. Thereafter it was known as Lockerbie Savings Bank. Its objective was 'the safe custody and increase of small savings' and it was aimed at agricultural and other labourers and servants, and later workers on the railway. Customers could deposit sums of one shilling or more on which interest was paid.

By 1825 it had £317 of deposits, but thereafter the business languished. In 1845 new rules were drawn up and efforts made to attract more savers by distributing handbills in adjoining parishes. By 1846 the bank had 160 customers and deposits of over £1,500 which were invested at the local branch of Western Bank of Scotland, from whose premises the savings bank operated daily. In 1857, upon the failure of Western Bank, its Lockerbie branch was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland and the account of Lockerbie Savings Bank was taken over by the Royal Bank. The two banks remained closely associated; in 1862 David Ewart, the Royal Bank’s Lockerbie agent, was appointed treasurer of the savings bank which conducted its business from the Royal Bank’s premises. Total deposits increased from over £9,000 in 1878 to over £70,000 in 1913; £265,000 in 1939; £500,000 in 1954; and £587,000 in 1972.

In 1982 Lockerbie Savings Bank, by that time one of the few savings banks formed under the 1819 Act still operating independently, was taken over by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Lockerbie Savings Bank are closed until at least 2033.

Summary of archive holdings elsewhere

• Savings Banks Museum: List of deposits 1816; receipt re payment for leaflet printing 1838; advertising handbill c.1845; annual reports 1847, 1859, 1972; reprinted press article re 150th anniversary 1970 (Ref: TSB/73/3/2).
• Glasgow University Archive Services: Notes of joint meetings of Lockerbie, Arran and Dumfries Savings Banks c.1956 (Ref: TSB/25/1/4/1)