London firm into Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd., with J. P. Morgan and Co. holding a one-third stake and the London partners holding the balance. Although J. P. Morgan's son, J. P. "Jack" Morgan, remained on the Morgan Grenfell board until his death in 1941, the relationship between the London and New York businesses which had to that time been a keystone to the firms' success necessarily became more remote coinciding with and probably contributing to a period of relative hibernation for Morgan Grenfell. Although still possessing a blue-chip client list and first-rate reputation the period from 1934 is regarded as one of drift and inertia. Resurgence Morgan Grenfell started to emerge from its period of retreat in the 1960s when the second Viscount Harcourt, a great-grandson of Junius Morgan (through the daughter of his mistress, he was never married), brought in fresh talent leading to a new period of growth and resurgence. One of the most important arrivals in 1967 was Sir John Stevens whose training as a solicitor and his experience working both at the IMF in Washington and at the Bank of England (where he became a director and was believed to have narrowly been passed over in 1966 for the governorship) as well as his experience as British Economic Minister in Washington made him an ideal recruit. Harcourt needed a younger man to effect needed organisational changes and saw him as a natural successor to the chairmanship of the firm. Sadly in 1973 as arrangements were being made for Stevens to succeed Harcourt as chairman he unexpectedly died at the premature age of fifty-nine. The Stevens years had nevertheless seen huge changes in the organisation and its culture. The firm became once again one of London's leading advisory and corporate finance businesses with a new emphasis on mergers and acquisitions in which it gained a reputation for innovation and daring, surprising for what was regarded as such a traditional firm. Banking business to date had largely been based on providing short-term finance to companies through the medium of acceptance credits – the process of guaranteeing repayment of companies' bills of exchange by way of the bank, for a fee or commission, providing their countersignature ("acceptance") so that the bills would secure the finest interest rate for the company when sold to the market. This was expanded and new areas of business opened notably in international project