Gilmans in London

My grandfather, Henry John Cleere (1851-1936), worked for Gilmans in the City of London until his retirement in the early 1920s, when I believe he was Chief Clerk. I remember Sir Charles Trinder, a former Chairman of the Ellerman Line and Lord Mayor of London, telling me that he remembered my grandfather as "a tall distinguished gentleman who was widely respected." We have in the family a bed-table inscribed "To H.J. Cleere in memory of his friend Ellis Gilman, 1872-1922," but most of our family records were sadly  destroyed by the Luftwaffe in 1943 and we know virtually nothing about my grandfather's career as an "India Merchant's Clerk", to quote one of three marriage certificates (sequential, of course). I am writing to find out whether there is any form of company history which covers these early years that might help my daughter and myself in our attempts to acquire more information about our ancestors.

(Professor) Henry Cleere