With the recruitment of Robert Brown from Sheffield Wednesday as Portsmouth's fourth manager, the team finished second place in the 1911–12 Southern Football League Division Two behind Merthyr Town and were promoted as runners-up. However, the club's finances were in trouble again, with losses and debts increasing to £10,000. A shareholders meeting was called on 8 May 1912, where George Lewin Oliver, one of the original founders and directors, proposed that ""The Portsmouth Football and Athletic Company"" should be wound up and replaced with a more business orientated company. The original company was then liquidated to remove the debt and on 27 July 1912, Portsmouth Football Company Limited was formed as the new parent company of Portsmouth F.C., with substantial financial guarantees given by the board of directors. The original 1898 founding director George Lewin Oliver became the new Portsmouth chairman.