Our 1/3rd of an acre of prime Finnish Real Estate? 25 10 1
When I first came to Finland in 1960 I had worked 5 years in the British Paper Industry for a company owned by British American Tobacco, a BAT Company, and I got to work at Kymene Aktiabolaget as it was known to the Swedish speaking owners, or alternatively as Kymin Osakeyhtiö, to the greater Finnish speaking population: a company which manufactured one of the many wood pulps, their "Bond Special" grade of fully bleached softwood sulphite, BAT used to make a part of their range of wrapping papers.
So successful was our collaboration that as I was departing, after working 6 weeks in the company's Central Laboratory, I was invited to return another summer, together with a good many other students, who provided cover while the more permanent staff and workers took their summer holidays, during the months typically June through August.
Perhaps unsurprising I returned the following year in July and stayed on until September, maybe 2 months altogether. And in the following year of 1962 I arrived in July again, but owing to the requirements of my College of Further Education I was able to stay on until May of 1963, because of a failed examination of the 3 sciences, I was referred in, to be repeated at the end of the next academic year. Altogether in the 5 years to May 1965 I would spend a second winter in Kuusankoski, to complete half the time away in Finland, and half the time returning home to Northern England.
Such were the times in 1960's Europe, that both countries offered a variety of opportunities to suit the development of its people. Back in England I worked for 9 months in a Chemical Company, developing basic and vat dyestuffs, some of which finding applications in the Paper Industry and/or perhaps in the textile industries, which also offered me work for a part of the time. In addition to spending 12 months working for a Transparent Paper (Cellophane) Manufacturer.
One day in Kuusankoski whilst working for Kymin Oy someone pointed this man out to me with the comment "That man is Jacob von Julin, the Company Chairperson, a man of enormous proportions, who was about to leave in a car. 10 years later during the period July 1971 to July 1973 I would work for my second Finnish company in Lappeenranta, following a summer sojourn there in 1969 as a University student for Oy Kaukas Ab, a Wood Products company.
During this period another famous person would be pointed out to me: a Mr Casimir Ehrnrooth, who was related to the Chairperson J. v. Julin through his mother who was also a von Julin, by the name of Louise.
This the background to, fast forward to 1978, when my colleague Bob Walton, our Sales Development Mgr suggested to Mr Dick Orton, our Sales and Marketing Director, that he should take me with him on his next trip to visit J.R. Crompton and Bros Ltd's main Finnish customer, Oy Visko Ab, in Hanko, as I was then married to a Finn and spoke Finnish.
And that 10 years later after many many more visits we would capture the lion's share of their business as Abaca Paper Base supplier to Oy Visko. This included the last busines trip of our then Chairman, Phillip Crompton, the last of the Crompton males to lead the company founded in 1830, when he also required my services to accompany him.
When subsequently I would be titled Project Coordinator for Casing Paper Developments, visiting once a month to help them with their Product Development, they began making overtures to get me to join them, although to begin with I was disinterested.
Nevertheless when the offer was of such proportions it would have been foolish to refuse, I accepted their offer of a 4-year contract and began what I hope will be last sojourn in Finland. My wife and I buying the house and its 1/4 to 1/3rd sized plot, where we have lived these past 36 years, since 1989 (buying it in 1988 after renting Company accommodation for my first 15 months, being joined 6 months later my my wife). Noteable in that our east facing garden outside my study here as I write, gives one a clear view of the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, during the winter months exceptionally with the first seaside cottage to the east of our open view, whereat stands "Familiaris" the one-time cottage of the von Julins, and the cottage of Emile Carl Gustaf Mannerheim's mother, and now perhaps in the hands of the Ehrnrooths (?).
But when perhaps 10 - 15 years ago the house opposite ours became vacant when its owner and last permanent resident, Aili Malinen departed this life, and her three sons decided to sell it on... Perhaps unsurprising that the buyer would be none other than Casimir Ehrnrooth's sister, a Dr Elsa Fromond, in the name of her daughter, Anna, who at the time was perhaps married to Cami the father of her first daughter, Charlotte..?
Need I say more about the pedigree of this once perhaps a snotty-nosed kid brought up in the village affectionally known as "Toofout" to the north of his birthplace of Manchester in war torn Britain in late 1939? Suffice to say that there was no way by remaining in the country of his birth could he ever have aspired to living in the country's prime British real estate, all of which has been in the hands of the Norman Conquesters, since 1066!!!? lol.
So successful was our collaboration that as I was departing, after working 6 weeks in the company's Central Laboratory, I was invited to return another summer, together with a good many other students, who provided cover while the more permanent staff and workers took their summer holidays, during the months typically June through August.
Perhaps unsurprising I returned the following year in July and stayed on until September, maybe 2 months altogether. And in the following year of 1962 I arrived in July again, but owing to the requirements of my College of Further Education I was able to stay on until May of 1963, because of a failed examination of the 3 sciences, I was referred in, to be repeated at the end of the next academic year. Altogether in the 5 years to May 1965 I would spend a second winter in Kuusankoski, to complete half the time away in Finland, and half the time returning home to Northern England.
Such were the times in 1960's Europe, that both countries offered a variety of opportunities to suit the development of its people. Back in England I worked for 9 months in a Chemical Company, developing basic and vat dyestuffs, some of which finding applications in the Paper Industry and/or perhaps in the textile industries, which also offered me work for a part of the time. In addition to spending 12 months working for a Transparent Paper (Cellophane) Manufacturer.
One day in Kuusankoski whilst working for Kymin Oy someone pointed this man out to me with the comment "That man is Jacob von Julin, the Company Chairperson, a man of enormous proportions, who was about to leave in a car. 10 years later during the period July 1971 to July 1973 I would work for my second Finnish company in Lappeenranta, following a summer sojourn there in 1969 as a University student for Oy Kaukas Ab, a Wood Products company.
During this period another famous person would be pointed out to me: a Mr Casimir Ehrnrooth, who was related to the Chairperson J. v. Julin through his mother who was also a von Julin, by the name of Louise.
This the background to, fast forward to 1978, when my colleague Bob Walton, our Sales Development Mgr suggested to Mr Dick Orton, our Sales and Marketing Director, that he should take me with him on his next trip to visit J.R. Crompton and Bros Ltd's main Finnish customer, Oy Visko Ab, in Hanko, as I was then married to a Finn and spoke Finnish.
And that 10 years later after many many more visits we would capture the lion's share of their business as Abaca Paper Base supplier to Oy Visko. This included the last busines trip of our then Chairman, Phillip Crompton, the last of the Crompton males to lead the company founded in 1830, when he also required my services to accompany him.
When subsequently I would be titled Project Coordinator for Casing Paper Developments, visiting once a month to help them with their Product Development, they began making overtures to get me to join them, although to begin with I was disinterested.
Nevertheless when the offer was of such proportions it would have been foolish to refuse, I accepted their offer of a 4-year contract and began what I hope will be last sojourn in Finland. My wife and I buying the house and its 1/4 to 1/3rd sized plot, where we have lived these past 36 years, since 1989 (buying it in 1988 after renting Company accommodation for my first 15 months, being joined 6 months later my my wife). Noteable in that our east facing garden outside my study here as I write, gives one a clear view of the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, during the winter months exceptionally with the first seaside cottage to the east of our open view, whereat stands "Familiaris" the one-time cottage of the von Julins, and the cottage of Emile Carl Gustaf Mannerheim's mother, and now perhaps in the hands of the Ehrnrooths (?).
But when perhaps 10 - 15 years ago the house opposite ours became vacant when its owner and last permanent resident, Aili Malinen departed this life, and her three sons decided to sell it on... Perhaps unsurprising that the buyer would be none other than Casimir Ehrnrooth's sister, a Dr Elsa Fromond, in the name of her daughter, Anna, who at the time was perhaps married to Cami the father of her first daughter, Charlotte..?
Need I say more about the pedigree of this once perhaps a snotty-nosed kid brought up in the village affectionally known as "Toofout" to the north of his birthplace of Manchester in war torn Britain in late 1939? Suffice to say that there was no way by remaining in the country of his birth could he ever have aspired to living in the country's prime British real estate, all of which has been in the hands of the Norman Conquesters, since 1066!!!? lol.
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