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Antonin Besse page 2
That he possessed a pioneering
spirit is clearly evident.
Air-conditioning was first
introduced to Aden by Besse. He was
the first to own a private motor
car, first with electricity, first
with modern plumbing when piped
water became available, first with a
refrigerator and the first to build
a steel fishing vessel in Aden.
He was adept at
local and international currency trading and
made a small fortune based on
trading Maria
Theresa dollars. His hide business
was lucrative and included, at one
time, 1,000 leopard skins a month.
He ran a fleet of more than 104
Lancia trucks in Ethiopia which were fully
utilised, using Italian drivers and
mechanics. |
The
first steel fishing vessel built in
Aden was by Aden Dockyards Ltd, a
Besse company. |
In Aden, Besse
& Co. were agents for deep freezers,
refrigerators, electric and gas
cookers, washing machines and other
domestic appliances, Kelvinator &
Carrier air-conditioning and Philips
radiograms.
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His multitude of business agencies in Aden included
Austin, Lancia, Renault, Jaguar,
Holden & Dodge cars, for which
service, repairs and spare parts
were available at the Besse garage
near the
Main Pass roundabout at Maalla.
There were also Johnson and Evinrude
outboard motors and marine
accessories. |
Besse
automotive department & Shell petrol
station below the Main Pass
roundabout, Maalla. Besse also had a
garage in Aidrus Rd., Crater which
employed Italian mechanics |
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Besse's El Nabeel, in
dry dock 1955 |
Besse & Co. were agents for the Liverpool &
London & Globe Insurance Company Ltd
and the Prudential Assurance Company
Ltd. and for air and sea travel
bookings. Associate company, The
Halal Shipping Company Ltd.
represented many shipping lines.
However, possibly the most lucrative
agency was for Shell, and his
long-term, though often volatile,
relationship with Shell, assured
Besse considerable commissions. The
relationship was by no means
one-sided as Besse had secured for
Shell the means to enter hitherto
untapped markets. |
"When I joined the
Besse Group in the sixties, the old floating
dock and El Nabeel was something of the past
but some pictures of ships owned by Besse
Aden were still there and then came the new
slipway and the new workshop in Hedjuff. In
the sixties I came across Mr. Nougarede the
GM for shipping and dockyard, also Mr. Shaw
the commercial manager of the Aden Dockyards
Co. and some other engineers, Italians in
particular and the last of them who stayed
70/80, including Mr. Salvatore Alvino. I
also had the chance to work there between
73/93. "
Mustafa.
Besse owned many properties in Aden such as
his head office in Aidrus Road,
Crater, (till he sold it), The
Crater Soap Factory, Maalla garage, the
Crescent Hotel and
Crescent Annexe, a warehouse in
Crater, and staff quarters in
Maalla.
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One of the first buildings built along
Maalla road
was
erected by Antonin Besse as
quarters for his staff. |
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A Besse building in Aidrus Road, Crater,
comprising warehousing on the ground
floor and flats on the first floor. |
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Besse's motto:
"Plus est en vous"
(There is more in you than you think.)
A fitting motto for Errol Flynn! |
The business tycoon
thrived on risk, but not only in
business. He would regularly swim in
the open sea, in Sharks Bay off Crater,
despite its notorious, shark-infested waters.
"It makes swimming more
interesting", he would say. |
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Besse owned
Arabian Airways, the story of
which is more fully covered
here
and here.
Following closure of
Arabian Airways he kept the
only remaining aircraft, a Short Scion,
which he used for trips to Mukeiras. Returning from such a
trip in 1940, the plane crashed on takeoff
and Mr. Besse suffered
life-threatening, spinal
injuries. He was taken to hospital
where he was fitted with a full body
cast; most uncomfortable in the
oppressive Aden heat. He was
transported to France where he spent
several months convalescing at his
'Le Paradou' property.
When people talk of Antonin Besse
invariably the first subject, and
sadly often the only subject, that
is mentioned or known of is his
endowment to establish St. Antony's
College, Oxford, a gift which he had wished
to remain anonymous. In the overall
picture of his life, without taking
from the generosity and significance
of this endowment, it was a
relatively small matter. His
philanthropy was widespread and the
full extent will never be known. |
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"I still remember how my
father was happily surprised
when coming home after
meeting Mr. Besse. Given the
opportunity of talking in
French (in Torino it was a
second familiar language and
my father did not feel so
comfortable with English) he
was astonished by Mr.
Besse's knowledge of classic
Italian literature and of
classical music. My father,
who had excellent musical
education in his school
years, learned from Mr.
Besse of composers he never
heard about before, such as
Ludovico da Victoria for
example."
Paolo Almondo. |
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He suffered a stroke in the summer
of 1948 and set to the task of
preparing an extensive document to
assist his successors in running his
expansive business empire. The great
man died
3 years later on July 2 1951 aged 74. |
