Interview with Philip Mawrey, Father of the early British Chamber

At a time our current president was but a mere twinkle in his father's eye, a young Englishman was sitting in the rear of a BOAC Argonaut with two other passengers in the three seats reserved for inflight recreation. On their seemingly endless journey from London via Bahrain and Bombay they had passed the time playing cards, drinking and chatting, each wondering what their new life in the tropics would hold.

When the aircraft touched down at Kallang, Reckitt and Coleman's new regional manager for Asia felt the rush of humid air. This would be an integral part of his life for the next sixteen years and Philip Mawrey sensed the beginning of a new adventure.

Consumed by the tropical heat, Philip's mind momentarily flashed back to him enlisting in the Navy to spend the war years on board a frigate and his surviving at least one attack that found him being hauled out of the freezing sea in his lifejacket.

The outstretched hand of the monocled outgoing regional manager welcomed him to Kallang and to Singapore and after a few pleasantries they drove straight to Raffles Hotel. This was where, except for the brief Japanese interlude, the monocled manager had lived for the last 45 years.

His first words of advice to newly arrived Mawrey were "you really must first find yourself a decent hotel in which to live. No one really lives in houses here you know."

After a few weeks the monocled manager checked out of Raffles for the first and last time and Philip found himself alone in charge of an Asia stretching from Japan and China down to Malaya and Indonesia, with brands such as Brasso, Cherry Blossom, Dettol, Disprin and Harpic to manage.

In the first twelve months Philip toured his markets three times. He decided the challenge was surmountable, convinced Reckitt and Coleman to buy a house at 9 Campden Park and at long last sent the cable which would bring his family to join him in Singapore.

Like all "number ones" in Singapore at that time, Philip quickly became a member of the only three acceptable clubs in town - The Tanglin Club, The Singapore Club and The Royal Singapore Golf Club. In the fifties life revolved around the Club pools at weekends, with occasional visits to the top two hotels The Adelphi and the Seaview. Raffles was seen as strictly for the tourists and business visitors. Amongst their growing circle of close friends was a Mrs Lee, one of whose sons had recently graduated in Law from the UK and who appeared destined for bigger things.

Life for four years was the usual mixture of travel, hard work and fun, but by 1954 Philip realised the business world in Asia was changing but the attitude of the British government was not, in particular that of the Board of Trade.

British trading companies who had made the effort to establish themselves in Asia were spending all of their time wrestling with complex and punitive tariffs and business was simply getting harder to do.

So Philip arranged a meeting at the Tanglin Club with four other number ones - Messrs Glendinning from Lewis Berger, Whitson from Unigate, Grier from Jenson and Nicholson, and Rainer from BOAC. Together the five of them agreed "...we need to create some form of association to be the forum for discussing trade issues in Asia and to keep government and principals alike informed upon these matters..."

So the United Kingdom Manufacturer's Representatives Association was born with five members and Philip as its president; an office he would hold until his retirement nine years later when the Association had grown to more than fifty members.

Perhaps the most fitting tribute to Philip and his role in the UKMRA can be found in a farewell message from his successor John Emery, the then number one of Tube Investments, in the Association's bulletin in September 1965.