Irish planter, punter, soldier, playboy

My post Irish father of Indian cardamom, rubber and pepper planting on 27^th May seems to have been received well. I had concluded that article by mentioning about Murphy’s failure to enlist in the in the army during World War I because of recruitment age limit. I should have realized that he was not the type to leave it at that. From further study of the details of his life I found that by 1917, around the age of 45, he was in uniform. Apparently, he must have obtained special permission.

JJ Murphy joined Supply and Transport, the forerunner of Royal Indian Supply Corps (RIASC), now known as Army Supply Corps (ASC). He served mainly in the Persia area and, after the war, came back to Yendayar, to his beloved plantations. But apart from the estates, he started taking a keen interest in horse racing. He certainly had the Irish flare for this sport.

Around 1920, Lord Willingdon, the then Governor of Madras was on a mission to revive racing in his capital city. Murphy was one of the first to support him. To quote from KL Kershaw, “For several years he dominated the racing world of Madras. At one time he owned 22 horses under training and they carried his colours on the turf of Madras, Ootacamund, Bangalore, Poona, Bombay and Calcutta.”

On a single day, at Madras, his horses won the Governor’s Cup and four other races. Among his impressive wins were the Indian St. Leger at Poona and CN Wadia Gold Cup in Bombay. He took his “Old Orkney” to England and won the Manchester November Handicap in 1927 with Steve Donahue riding, and the Goodwood Cup in 1929.

Murphy’s other loves included the company of the fair sex, good food, and wine. And parties. Kershaw says, “For years the Murphy Ball was the main feature of the “Planters’ Week”; when JJ entertained three and four hundred guests a night. His parties for the Dublin Horse Show, for Ascot, for the Derby; his entertainments at the Savoy, at the Berkely, at St. Ann’s – his house in Ootty and elsewhere became legendary".

Suddenly, at the age of 60, Murphy called off the whirl and withdrew to Yendayar. He concentrated more of labor welfare activities of which he was a pioneer in the plantation industry. Long before the laws were passed to the effect, for his workers Murphy had permanent accommodation, piped water, sanitation, maternity wards, crèches, hospitalization, noonday meals for children, and schools. He paid his workers each of whom he knew personally, higher wages than the rest of the planters. He also introduced generous gratuity and pension schemes.

JJ Murphy was a much loved and respected man. He last visited Ireland in 1938-1939, almost two decades before his death.

Ends.

Irish father of Indian cardamom, rubber and pepper planting

The old man, past eighty, was ailing when the letter came from a friend to whom he had expressed a desire to buy a new sophisticated wireless set. The friend had written to say that only one such equipment was available.

From what was considered to be his death bed, the old bachelor replied, “Thank you for your letter. I suppose that at my age and in my condition I should be ordering a harp, not a wireless set.” He would have been reasonably certain about his place in heaven because he was a staunch Catholic and Pope Pius XI had, in 1927, conferred on him the Papal honor Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice for the services he had rendered to the Catholic Church and for his philanthropy.

But the man had great resilience. On this occasion he came back from the jaws of death, so to speak, and immediately sent a telegram to his friend: “cancel harp send wireless.” That was the kind of indomitable spirit he had.

Who was he? An Irishman named J. J. Murphy (1872-1957).

He was born in Dublin into a family of Shippers and Bankers, a seventh month baby who was rather delicate and asthmatic. After private education with Marist Brothers, a Catholic Educational Brotherhood in Europe, and Trinity College, Dublin, J.J. (as he was popularly known) set out to the East. He joined a tea plantation company in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) but shifted to South India to join another. In spite of his independent nature, he survived on that job for a few years before being sacked.

That, in a way, set Murphy free, at the age of 29.

And there was the whole wide, wild world before him. How he faced it is a saga, which, unfortunately, has not found its rightful place in history. It would be a worthwhile thesis material for a serious researcher.

The first niche Murphy formed was at Pambadampara in the Cardamom Hills. It was virgin forest. There he did something that no body else before him had tried. Till then cardamom was obtained from wild growth in the forests, or from small peasants. The Irishman cultivated cardamom at Pambadampara on an organized plantation basis. It was the first such estate in India and perhaps the world. An interesting aspect was that since cardamom requires heavy shade, it was not necessary to cut down the trees.

Murphy’s interest turned to rubber. Since 1872 the India Office in London had been trying to introduce hevea rubber plants in India without any success. But Murphy, along with three associates, established the first rubber plantation in the country at a place called Alwaye. Then, in 1904, the man went for his own private rubber plantation at Yendayar, the place that was to be his home till death. When I last visited Yendayar Estate, a couple of decades back, a few of the rubber trees planted by Murphy were still standing.

Murphy’s success attracted major Sterling companies to the field. They closed down, at least temporarily, during the depression years. But with uncanny foresight Murphy held on and replanted the old rubber area with high yielding Malaysian clones. When the demand for the strategically important natural rubber spurted during the World War II, the Irishman was right up there on top.

At Yendayar Murphy planted tea as well, and scored another first by organizing pepper cultivation on plantation pattern. Till then, like cardamom, pepper too was procured from wild growth and small farmers.

Murphy was an enlightened employer. He once told the Planters Association of which he was the Chairman, "So long as we pay fair rates and look after our coolies well, we need not worry much..."

At one time I used to visit the Mundakayam Club, which Murphy established, rather frequently. I heard the following story there.

When the First World War began, Murphy went to Madras (now Chennai) to enlist. The officer concerned pointed out that the age limit for recruitment was 40. The Irishman was around 42 then. He was upset, but there was nothing any one could do about His Majesty’s regulations. Murphy told the officer, “Very well, but don’t blame me if you lose the bloody war”, and walked out.

J. J. Murphy died on May 9, 1957. He was buried at Yendayar.

Ends.

Note: For details I have depended on an article “J. J. Murphy 1872 – 1957”, which the late K. L. Kershaw, an eminent planter himself, wrote for the Planters’ Chronicle. This collector's item was sent to me by my maternal uncle, Michael A. Kallivayalil, who, among other things, owns the Yendayar Estate.

Cross posted to Articles By Abraham Tharakan.

Also see:

Irish planter, punter, soldier, playboy

Kerala plantations: The bed tea ceremony that was

Oru Desathinte Amma.