INTERVIEW
governor of Tanganyika - now
Tanzania - so I went there as a Royal
Marine reservist, and stayed there
for two years, which was a wonderful
experience. I travelled to many African
countries, all on duty,
and earned three months’
leave.
“I had a great friend
whose father had a
tea garden in South
India, and that is what
switched me on. It was
the growing of it that I
found fascinating, so off
I went with all this leave I had saved
up, and stayed with this family, and
spent a month there learning how tea
is grown. Then through the Twining
connections I went to the tea gardens
in what was called Ceylon, now Sri
Lanka, and then back to India, which
were fantastic experiences.”
He returned to England and on
January 2, 1956, joined Twinings. All
the tea tasters at the company had
never left London, because in those
days people didn’t travel. So for him
to have the background knowledge
coffee house that specialised in tea, I
then had to go and learn about coffee
for a year, which was quite different. I
had seen coffee growing in Africa and
India, so having learned that, I began
learning about other
parts of the business,
and worked my way
up.”
In the mid-1960s
the Greater London
Council made
Twinings a fantastic
offer to buy their tea
and coffee factories
in the East End, provided they would
relocate to any one of five destinations.
“We chose Andover because it
happened to be halfway between
London and Avonmouth, where
the tea comes in, and also close to
Southampton where it is exported,”
said Sam. “So the decision was made
to relocate to Andover. We took 80
'After two years I was allowed
to actually go and buy tea
at an auction in London'
14
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of how tea was manufactured was not
only interesting but extremely helpful.
He continued: “I started as a pot boy
for the tea tasters, and then worked
with them, including going to the
auctions. After two years I was allowed
to actually go and buy the tea at an
auction in London.
“But because Twinings started as a