I followed the directions Sir Kenneth had written down for me and travelled up to his country home by train. It was beginning to rain and I had no rain gear. The British never leave their homes without an umbrella but I wasn’t used to carrying one. I was likely to leave it somewhere!

The train stopped at the station but not many people got off or on. May be because it was a Saturday. As I got down, I saw someone head towards me. It was Sir Kenneth himself!
He had his old raincoat on and carried an umbrella. As a matter of fact, he carried two. One for me as well!

He welcomed me warmly and we walked to his car, which he had driven himself. I thought to myself, here’s someone whose company produced about 15 m. kg of prime tea in Assam (current value approx. US$ 25-30 million per annum), engineering works, warehousing and other businesses, personally welcoming a twenty-year-old trainee from India! But then I was not just a trainee I was his son’s good friend.

The old man was full of questions as we drove about twenty minutes to his house. It was a very large and old house, full of memorabilia from the East. Lady Warren welcomed me at the door and announced that she had personally prepared an Indian meal in my honour! They had invited a couple of their neighbours for lunch, but we had time to catch up on news before they turned up. I joined them in a glass of sherry before lunch.

They wanted to know all about Cochin and Kerala. Richard, their son, had sung praises about the place. I told them that their son had taken to Cochin as duck to water. We were into Sailing on Saturdays and went on interesting tours by road. They were genuinely pleased. Richard’s mother showed me where they had hung up the wall hanging he had sent. She was a little anxious as Richard had not found a life partner as yet and time was moving on.

As I am fascinated by the history of old families, I asked Sir Kenneth about his forebears. He said, that the family were seafarers and was involved in trade in the Far East but mainly with China. This was around 1750. He said, “In today’s terms I would say that the ancestor who established the ‘Warrens’ was a buccaneer on the South China Sea. John Warren had started by pillaging other ships but had grown immensely wealthy when he moved on to trading between China, India and England. That was a period when India produced opium and China consumed it. Opium was used in Chinese medicine, but people soon got hooked on to it and there was money to be made in its supply. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars 

The Warren landholdings and businesses were nationalised in China when the communists took over in 1947. But by then the company had established substantial tea holdings in Assam. They owned a lot of property including the iconic Jorhaut Tea Company.

Their other guests arrived for lunch. They were people with large business interests in London but were friendly and down-to-earth with me. They were very interested about life in India and the political winds that were blowing at the time. Since I had an interest in the subject, I was able to carry on a meaningful conversation.

Once the guests had enjoyed the Curry Lunch and left, the Warrens relaxed, and we sat in the formal sitting room sipping Port. Sir Kenneth was in good spirits. He told me that he was passionate about professional wrestling and would buy front row seats to watch big names punch and kick each other in the ring. He said, he would bob up and down in his seat shout out to his favourite wrestler, “Pull his hair out”, “Kick him in the teeth” and so on! Then he added, “I know it’s make-believe, but I enjoy it!”

I couldn’t help thinking, however big you are the child inside of you never grows up! And that’s alright!

I got back to London and savoured the day! I sat down and wrote a long letter to Richard thanking him for the way I was received by his mother and father. It was a highlight of my trip to London, I said. I knew he would be pleased.

If it was this day and age, I would have taken a Selfie with the Sir Kenneth and Lady Warren and WhatsApp-ed it to Richard and carried on a banter with him on the train ride to London. How times have changed!

Regrettably the fortunes of the Warren family took a nosedive in 1967 when the old man passed away suddenly. I don’t think Sir Kenneth’s older son was ready to take over especially at a time political winds in India were adverse for expatriate interests. Vinod Parekh, the JT Chairman was called in to find buyers, and run the company in the interim. He left J. Thomas prematurely in 1967 to take over as Chairman and Managing Director of the Warren Group. And young Dipak Roy succeed him as the JT Chairman.

In the next four years VVP made profits for the company which went partially to pay for the Indianisation of the company.  He had also lined up the Goenkas to take over the assets.  Currently the Warren properties have been divided between Vinay Goenka and his brother in law, Anil Ruia.

By this time Kenya and other East African countries had opened up Tea Plantations and many planters moved there to give the nascent tea industry a great push. It was also the perfect opportunity for British planting interests to invest their money and know-how in East Africa.

The Mombasa auctions eventually replaced Calcutta, Colombo, and Gauhati as the largest Auction centre in the world!