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  • VIVIAN LOUIS BLAZE - APPRECIATION

    VIVIAN LOUIS BLAZE - APPRECIATION

    Monte Holsinger (2007)

    I was but a stripling, eighteen years of age when I first met Vivian. I still vividly recall that meeting way back in 1963. He and his beautiful wife, Charmaine, (who died last year) were a truly striking looking couple, who no doubt had a mesmerizing effect on a callow youth, such as I. I met him again about a year later when I began my planting career Read More

  • WALK IN THE GREEN VALLEY

    WALK IN THE GREEN VALLEY

    Lionel Layman (2005)

    Perhaps you are sipping a cup of coffee, or would it be the nectar from the two leaves and a bud? I hope so. Then, come along with me, hold my hand, and journey with me into a day’s panoramic fantasia in the green valley. I’ll take you into the verdant pastures and hold up to you a sight which, to us, who have gazed on it day after day, has been a part of our life. Read More

  • THE TEA FACTORY – THE UNIQUE THEME HOTEL

    THE TEA FACTORY – THE UNIQUE THEME HOTEL

    Ian Gardner (2005)

    Aitken Spence & Co. (AS) had been involved in tea/rubber plantations for well over 100 years as an Agency House. However, plantations were nationalised in the early seventies and the estate agency business came to an abrupt end. Fortunately, Aitken Spence was in Shipping and Insurance and had by then diversified Read More

  • THE HISTORY OF THE NUWARA ELIYA TEA ESTATES COMPANY 1870S – 1972

    THE HISTORY OF THE NUWARA ELIYA TEA ESTATES COMPANY 1870S – 1972

    Ian Gardner (2005)

    The factory at the Hethersett tea plantation played an important part in the development of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, and in helping Pure Ceylon Tea to become renowned as the world’s favourite beverage.Tea from the Hethersett factory was the first to fetch the highest price in the world for silver tip tea from Ceylon. Read More

  • EARDLEY ARTHUR HERMON – AN APPRECIATION

    EARDLEY ARTHUR HERMON – AN APPRECIATION

    Dyan Seneviratne (2005)

    “Do you know the difference between a Rubber Tree and a Tea Bush, young man?”, thundered Eardley Hermon to a quivering nineteen-year-old ‘fresh-face’ just out of St. Thomas’ College Mt Lavinia on 1st July 1969, on the steps leading to the Manager’s Bungalow of Poronuwa Group, Kahawatte. Read More

  • MAXWELL FERNANDO - APPRECIATION

    MAXWELL FERNANDO - APPRECIATION

    David Colin Thome (2005)

    The recent passing away of Maxwell Fernando was not just a profoundly sad event for his family and friends, but it was also an incalculable loss to the tea industry, to which he devoted most of his adult life.In over 125 years, the Ceylon and Sri Lankan tea industry have spawned many great personalities and characters Read More

  • RALSTON TISSERA – AN APPRECIATION

    RALSTON TISSERA – AN APPRECIATION

    Anura Gunasekera (2005)

    Ralston, who passed away very recently, demands appreciation if not comment, on account of his unique individuality. Mourned he would have been, by his many friends and relatives but it does not seem right that a man such as he should go unsung.Invariably, appreciations extol virtues and ignore faults. Read More

  • RICHARD WYNELL-MAYOW: 1922-2005

    RICHARD WYNELL-MAYOW: 1922-2005

    An Appreciation (2005)

    For many years I used to think how privileged I was to have four friends upon whom, if the need ever arose, I could rely utterly upon. Four men who would stand by me. Four men I could put my bottom dollar on, so to speak.That was until 1998 when the first, a Jesuit priest, died on Christmas Day. Read More