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Not long after I left school (Royal College), in late February 1955, I was interviewed by the Managing Director of Bosanquet & Skrine Mr. Walter Berry and his assistant Alan Sharp Paul. Read More
Reminiscing on events leading to his becoming a Planter, Maithri said: “I was fortunate to be a member of a family of proprietary tea planters. My parents and uncles (William's) owned tea estates, in the Up Country and Low Country. As a child I was blessed with the opportunity of spending holidays at Tillyrie Estate in Dickoya, and play 'pullearr' with the kids, mostly children of estate workers.” Read More
David Perkins is the son of English parents. His father, G.G. Perkins, had been an officer in the British Army during the First World War, serving in the Western Front. At the end of the war, accepting a tea planting opportunity in Ceylon, he had moved to Hatherleigh Estate, Rakwana, in 1919. Read More
Recently, my friend, Kavi Seneviratne, formerly Managing Director of Kelani Valley Plantations and, subsequently, Managing Director of Hayleys Global Beverages, very generously gifted to Dilmah, a set of old books on a wide range of aspects of the Plantation Industry. Amongst them was a tattered foolscap book with the spine exposed Read More
My brother Sene and I became professional plantation managers – commonly known as simply: ‘Tea Planters’ – a career certainly not for the chicken-hearted – it was tough and above all warranted much fore-planning and meticulous implementation with an eye for detail. To get a giant work-force of 2500 to 3500 Read More
Mr. J D S Wickremesooriya, my Grand Father, was one of the pioneer Transport Agents in the Dimbula District. He had branches at Kotagala, Nawalapitiya and Talawakelle. My father Lionel and his elder brother Francis look over the business in the late 1930s, with my father Lionel, taking charge of Talawakelle Read More
I took over Forres from 1957- 1961 after serving seven years as an SD on Pita Ratmalie, Haputale. During that time I had come to two conclusions about labour troubles: I. That a lot of petty troubles arose from the more intelligent labourers being bored and 2. that the old pre-war P Ds hadn't paid a lot of attention to Hindu culture. Read More
During my career as a Tea Planter, I spent ten years on Laxapana Group in Maskeliya- four years as an Assistant Superintendent on both Valamalai and St Andrews Divisions and six years as Manager, during the period 1961 to 1971. Mr. C. W. Bond was the Manager of Laxapana when I moved over from Delta Estate in Pussellawa where he was the Visiting Agent Read More
