Boh Tea

1890s – 1910s

A 6-year old John Archibald ‘Archie’ Russell arrived in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaya with his father and 4 brothers. Following the death of his mother
in a tragic carriage accident, he was sent back to England for his early
years of education. Upon returning to Malaya, Archie began a career in the
mining industry. He also became fluent in 5 Chinese dialects and Bahasa
Melayu and made a name for himself building a railway station and starting
businesses in many areas including a rubber company and colliery.

1890s – 1910s

A 6-year old John Archibald ‘Archie’ Russell arrived in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaya with his father and 4 brothers. Following the death of his mother
in a tragic carriage accident, he was sent back to England for his early
years of education. Upon returning to Malaya, Archie began a career in the
mining industry. He also became fluent in 5 Chinese dialects and Bahasa
Melayu and made a name for himself building a railway station and starting
businesses in many areas including a rubber company and colliery.

1890s – 1910s

A 6-year old John Archibald ‘Archie’ Russell arrived in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaya with his father and 4 brothers. Following the death of his mother
in a tragic carriage accident, he was sent back to England for his early
years of education. Upon returning to Malaya, Archie began a career in the
mining industry. He also became fluent in 5 Chinese dialects and Bahasa
Melayu and made a name for himself building a railway station and starting
businesses in many areas including a rubber company and colliery.

1920s – 1930s

It’s the Great Depression and the world has spun into recession.
Archie (previously invested in rubber, mining and construction) decided
to start planting tea at Cameron Highlands together with A.B. Milne,
a veteran planter from Sri Lanka. Virgin jungle terrain was transformed
into the first highlands tea garden in the country, now known as
BOH Plantations. The name BOH was derived from “Bohea”, the hills in
Fujian Province also called Wuyi Hills, where tea was originally thought
to have been discovered by the Emperor Shennong. Bohea was also the name
of a premium tea grade in the early China tea trade. Boh means precious
happiness in mandarin.

1930s – 1960s

Archie died of tuberculosis in Singapore at the early age of 50. His widow,
Kathleen insisted BOH be retained despite financial difficulties.
During World War II, the estate was occupied by the Japanese and largely
abandoned. After the war, Archie’s son Tristan joined the business at the
age of 21. During the turbulent Malayan Emergency, Cameron Highlands was prime
‘ambush territory’ for communist terrorists. Troops were stationed around the
plantations to try and help protect the estate and the workers, while
Tristan had to sleep with a pistol under his pillow for security!

Following independence, many British planters left, however, BOH’s founding
family remained committed to staying in Malaysia, optimistic about what the
future would bring, and themselves becoming truly Malaysian.