Barclays' chairman Marcus Agius is last of the old school He was taken aback when shareholders, politicians and the public rounded on Mr Diamond's generous £4m salary and bonus, and £2.25m long-term incentive plan earlier this year. At the company's annual meeting, 32pc of shareholders refused to back the remuneration report as Barclays became one of the first victims of the so-called Shareholder Spring. Agius was seen as too much on the side of Diamond and not enough on that of shareholders. He has also come under fire for not managing the bank's succession. This will be exposed if Agius's early retirement is not enough to soothe shareholders" and politicians" ire and Diamond is forced also to step aside. One analyst said: "Nobody has ever been able to control Bob Diamond and now we're stuck with the result of that. The board, under Agius, has failed to put in any checks and balances against him. There is no obvious candidate to take over from Diamond. Though a senior independent director at the BBC, Mr Agius is not a fan of being in the glare of the media spotlight - unlike Diamond, who revelled in giving the inaugural Today Programme lecture about ethics in the City. Cambridge-educated Agius will undoubtedly regret having to leave his career in the City in such a whirl of negative publicity. Many will argue he is carrying the can for the failings of others. His background is blue-chip and formal. His father was chairman of Schroders, while his cousin, Nicholas, was a senior figure at SG Warburg. His wife, Kate, is the daughter of Edmund de Rothschild, of the great European banking house. He made his name before Big Bang and had a reputation for ­being charming, impeccably dressed and lacking stuffiness. Before Barclays, Agius worked for Lazard for more than 30 years, ending up as chairman, and forging a career as far away from the brash Wall Street culture as was possible. His hobbies are shooting and gardening; he is a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. There was a scurrilous City rumour, which made it into the pages of Private Eye, that when appointed chairman of Barclays he had to be taken into the bank on a Sunday and quietly shown how to use a cash dispensing machine - previously, or so the rumour went, all his cash requirements had been met by his Lazard secretary, who would hand him a weekly envelope.