Leon J Lyell
Year of birth 1956 in Victoria, Australia.
Currently living in Warrandyte, Victoria.
email : leonjlyell@gmail
Darjeeling heritage:
Mother: Joan Katheleen Marsh born 1921 Phoobsering TE and 'sent' to Australia with her sister Margaret in 1939.
Maternal Grandfather: Frederick George Marsh, born 1891 in Adelaide, South Australia. He travelled to Darjeeling about 1912 where his missionary sister Mrs Edith Clark was convalescing, then worked with Claud Bald at Singlar TE as assistant manager and joined the Northern Bengal Mounted Rifles (NBMR), the planters militia.
He joined the Darjeeling Tea Company as Manager of Phoobsering from about 1921 to 1948. 1934 managed the rebuilding of an 'earthquake proof' managers house at Phoobersing, following the earthquake of 15 January 1934, with the help of engineer Arthur Ansell. Died Melbourne 1979.
Maternal Grandmother: Margaret Evelyn Ker Bald born 1888 at Tukvar TE Darjeeling, married F G March 1917 at the Union Church Darjeeling. Died Melbourne 1959.
Great Grandfather: Claud Bald born Glasgow in 1853 and became an apprentice engineer. He began tea planting on the Lohargur T E in 1877. In about 1881, he joined the Lebong Tea Company and the NBMR. In 1885 he returned to Glasgow to marry Margaret Ker and they had 5 children all born at Tukvar.
Claud wrote Indian tea: its culture and manufacture, published in 1903, and revised 1908, 1917 and 1922.
He served as manager at Tukvar from 1907 to 1919. His only son Claud Wylie was a tea merchant in Calcutta until about 1925.
He retired to Worthing in 1920 and died there in 1924. Margaret died in 1935.
The engineer at Tukvar with Claud was Charles Ansell, father of Arthur.
See also <http://www.koi-hai.com/Default.aspx?id=720850>.
Picture 1: Leon Lyell and Umesh Rakecha the current manager at Phoobsering outside the dining room for the 80th anniversary of the house.
Picture 2: Charles? Wilson, Margaret (nee Bald) and Fred Marsh, Malcolm Webb (Assistant Manager at Ging), unknown dog, Arthur Ansell (Proprietor, Ansell & sons Engineering) and Daisy Ansell at the then-new Phoobsering house circa 1935.
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