Papers relating to the Bovis Affair including annual reports; correspondence Inchcape offer to buy P&O; a revised P&O five year plan; speaking notes; newspaper clippings; notes to improve the relationship between Marshall and Inchcape and Memoranda between Marshall and Inchcape.

Administrative / biographical background
In 1972, Ford Geddes,P&O’s Chairman, led P&O into what Lord Inchcape declared to be ill-advised negotiations to merge with property construction and development company Bovis. The deal nearly came to pass but for one director, Lord Inchcape, who was vehemently opposed to it. Marshall also did not agree with the decision and together they fought it; a 90-day struggle ensued that caught the media's attention. At that time it was unusual for an executive director of relatively little board experience to stand against long-time colleagues and the assembled might of the merchant bankers. This was one of the first major takeover bids in which press advertising was used extensively and the costs were considered extraordinarily high. As a counter offer, Inchcape launched a bid for P&O itself. Equally opposed to the Bovis deal, Sir Donald Anderson, the former chairman, was moved to intervene and proffer a third way: P&O could continue as before but with Inchcape in charge. Following a series of extraordinary general meetings, the board’s proposal for Bovis was roundly rejected, Geddes and half the board were out and Inchcape was in. By 1973 a collapse in the property market had brought Bovis to its knees. The logic of a significant new business still held, but this time the climate and the price were right. Marshall and Inchcape acquire Bovis in 1974 at one seventh of the valuation put on it in 1972. Marshall and Inchcape were a powerful pair but after four years together the relationship eventually deteriated.