August 25 2012
Bill Henderson visited UK in 2012 and tells us :
I made a 5 week visit in June/July to catch up with old friends
and my few remaining distant relatives in Scotland.
Was in London during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations which were
very well organised despite the unremitting rain.
I stayed with Pran Hnada in London and we managed to go out to
Uckfield to visit Jim & Lily Dame. All of us rather old now but,
fortunately, still reasonably fit and well.
I'll attach a few photos which may be of interest to Koi Hai members.
Pran handa with daughter Margarita
With Pran Handa, Jim Dame and Bill
View of Scotland in early July 2012
Pran with Jim and Lily Dame
View in July of the Caingorms
April 28 2012
Bill tells us that he had just returned from a visit to Ballarat which is
the largest inland town in Victoria, about 100 miles west of Melbourne.
In the mid-19th century it was the centre of the Australian gold rush and
some of the wealthiest men in the country lived and made their fortunes
there. They also spent money and financed some beautiful public and
private buildings as well as a large botanical garden where an annual
begonia festival is still held.
Sylvia and I used to occasionally attend the begonia festival and I was
late in going this year but there were still some lovely blooms remaining
and the photos of them are shown below
Seems many of the rich gold miners were Scottish and one of them,
James Thomson, made a bequest to the gardens of several Classical
Italian marble statues and one of William Wallace as a tribute to his own
homeland. Perhaps the only statue of Wallace outside Scotland.
Also an avenue of newer busts of Australian prime ministers and I
took a picture of Stanley Melbourne Bruce who happened to be a cousin
of my father; his mother being Mary Anne Henderson, my father's aunt.
A very knowledgeable town clerk seemed pleased to go through the
old documents in the archives with me.
William Wallace--possibly the only
statue of him outside of Scotland
Beautiful Begonias
An example of a Classical Marbgle Statue
Stanley Melbourne Bruce
November 7 2011
Bill and his son Bruce recently visited the Seychelles with the sad task of spreading some of his late wife Sylvia's ashes on the Island, where she was born. During that visit they obviously revisited their old tea estate and factory which Bill started; the following is a letter Bill received about the intentions to create a museum and to honour Bill as the founder of the Tea Industry in the Seychelles.
Below is the letter Bill received from Priyanga Tennege, 'Unit Manager. Tea & Coffee Division, Seychelles Trading Corporation'
At the outset , I am sorry for not writing to you earlier than this but wish and hope you'll are fine after your visit and back to Australia. I was on holiday in Sri Lanka and was back last week, and my staff and I thank you very much for you visit to the Tea factory which was an honor and a wonderful surprise to all, and I was always wanting to meet this Great man before I leave Seychelles and I am so glad I got the opportunity to do so but wish I had more time to spend with you as I have written many articles in which I have always mentioned your name as the founder of Seychelles Tea which is unique and for you to start from scratch would have been a herculean task, so as an honor to you and to the Tea industry in Seychelles my brain child was to start a working museum in the very place you started this industry.
September 18 2011
Bill Henderson wrote:
I have just returned from Seychelles where I went, accompanied by my eldest son, to return Sylvia's ashes for burial in her homeland.
There was a commemorative ceremony in the same church where we were married 46 years ago and many of our old friends and Sylvia's relatives attended.
There have been many changes there since I left 27 years ago and the old traditional plantation crops of coconuts, cinnamon, vanilla etc have been completely abandoned and even the tea has been reduced to a few areas close to the main roads. The industries now are tourism and commercial tuna fishing.
I drove up the mountainside and stopped to chat with some tea workers at a section of tea which appeared to have been maintained as a tourist attraction and noticed that the greater part of the plantation, away from the road, had been left to grow wild and was reverting to forest.
When we reached the factory I was surprised to be greeted at the gate by the manager, Mr Priyanga Tennage, and some of his staff who informed me that the worker I had stopped to speak with earlier had informed them by mobile phone that I was on my way. We had only managed to get an office phone in the last few years I worked there and now the field workers had mobile phones!
Some of the same workers at the factory had been there during my time and showed me all round. I stayed and had lunch there.
There is now insufficient leaf for the factory to run more than one or two days a week and the rest of the time they are blending and packing tea imported from Sri Lanka. It was disappointing to see so much of the plantations, which had taken many years of hard work to establish, left to grow wild because the cost of running is too high.
Bill kindly attached a few pictures of his visit which are shown below:
Bill Henderson with Tea Manager and Staff
Bill in small section of remaining tea
In the Leaf factory
Mr Priyanga Tennage, Tea Unit Manager
Same 4 ladies were working with me at Tea factory 27 years ago
Signing
Tea Sales
With one of the Tea workers
Bruce at Beauvallon Beach
Bruce holding a Coco-de-Mere
Bruce with a factory worker Flossie
My son Bruce
What the tourists come for
With Sylvia's brother Serge and his wife Christine
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