Standing in the fields of north Hampshire’s chalk downland, surveying acres of newly planted and flourishing Black Mitcham mint, Michael Colman could see his vision of a mint business in retirement coming alive. Having served nearly 50 years in the family mustard company, originally Colman’s of Norwich, he was to embark on the riskiest project of his life in retirement, but in the knowledge that he had a lifetime’s worth of business experience.
What might have surprised him was the media interest. Headlines followed, such as, “From mustard to mint” and “Making a mint”, and appearances on Countryfile, The One Show, Farming Today and other outlets were requested. Nevertheless, it would be the best part of ten years before the first Summerdown products made from mint oil rolled off the shelf. Always careful to praise his team who were inspired by his vision, Michael was delighted when his grandson Joseph Colman took the business on into the future.
The truth was that Black Mitcham had once been grown in Hampshire on the Malshanger estate, bought by his father, Sir Jeremiah Colman, 2nd Baronet, in 1936. With the Second World War and the need for food, the mint had been ploughed up as the nation’s need for cereal crops came first. Black Mitcham mint was then imported back into the country from the US. The farm manager was sent to learn the business of growing mint and the distillation of essential oils, while Michael developed the chocolate, tea and fragrant products that followed. Several were award-winning. Other essential-oil crops followed, notably lavender ― even sold to the French — camomile and spearmint.
Michael Jeremiah Colman was born in 1928, the middle child of Sir Jeremiah and Gwen (née Tritton) in Eaton Place, London. Michael’s great-grandfather had developed Colman’s of Norwich from a company employing 200 in 1854 to one employing 2,000 by 1898. The business was to form an ever closer partnership with Reckitts of Hull, which initially made starch. In 1936, after a fire at his home of Gatton Park near Reigate, Surrey, Michael’s father moved to Malshanger, where he could breed Red Poll cattle and shoot partridge.
In the 1930s Michael was brought up in an almost Edwardian set-up at Malshanger, and his education, until the age of eight, involved talking to members of the extensive staff at the house and farm, which included, among others, five gardeners and eight woodmen. He never lost his skill of talking to and listening to all-comers.
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He learnt to drive aged 11 ― and never lost his love of a fine car. The family Rolls-Royce, which his mother donated to the War Office for the war effort, was spotted in Paris after the city’s liberation.
After several happy years at King’s Mead School at Seaford, East Sussex, which moved to Devon in the early war years, in 1941 Michael went to Eton, and on Armistice Day never forgot the annual reading at the college of pupils who had been killed.
Ready to go and fight, in 1946 Michael found himself instead training with the Royal Marines and then, through the Hull connection, serving with the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry. He became a captain during National Service but in 1948 joined Colman’s of Norwich.
He would remain with Reckitt & Colman until 1995, when he retired as chairman. Initially, he was involved in their overseas trading, mostly in Commonwealth countries, but two events would soon change his life.
In October 1955 Michael married Judy, the third daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Peveril William-Powlett, who was governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1954 to 1959. The wedding took place at St Martin-in-the-Fields and drew press attention especially because the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, used the occasion to fire a salvo on the irrevocable nature of marriage vows in the light of Princess Margaret’s intention to marry the divorcee Group Captain Peter Townsend. Michael and Judy more than fulfilled his principles, being married for 68 years. They would go on to have five children: Olivia, a primary school teacher; Jamie, a lawyer and the fourth baronet; Rose, a psychotherapist; Jo, a digital entrepreneur; and Alice, a baker and three-day-event horse owner.
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The second event to change Michael’s life, coming at the age of 33, was the death of his father in 1961, and the ensuing challenge of developing an estate in Hampshire while working in Hull.
Michael’s gifts in business lay in planning and finance. In 1970, at the age of 41, he joined the main board of Reckitt & Colman with responsibility for corporate planning, bringing in new talent and management consultants. He learnt an important lesson, namely that “either you get a grip of difficult issues confronting the company and provide sound and perhaps painful plans, or make yourself agreeable to the people who had been in the business a long time”. He opted for the former.
Large acquisitions were made in the US that, with efficiency, grew the business. And in 1986 he became chairman. In 1995 the Colman’s mustard and the food business were sold to Unilever, which Michael supported, however difficult the decision was personally. The company, one of Britain’s largest, would now focus on pharmaceuticals and household products.
But new challenges were on the horizon. In 1993 he was approached by the Crown, through the Bank of England, to consider becoming the Church of England’s first church estates commissioner. The Commissioners’ assets had declined by £800 million through risky investments and a new leader was needed to regroup, follow a balanced investment policy and deal with the ticking time bomb of clergy pensions. It needed all Michael’s qualities of plain speaking, resolution, expertise and the assembly of a resourceful team.
While not taking a salary, he gave himself to the task and was backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. He told the bishops, who were trustees, that they were in breach of their obligations in overspending their assets. He asked the dioceses to take on the responsibility of future pension costs, running down the commissioners’ involvement. He apologised for the past and made secure plans for the future. Thousands of clergy today can be grateful to him for a secure pension.
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Underlying his business career and commissioners work was his profound Christian faith. This was already exemplified in the way a wing of the family house was used as a retreat and conference centre for Holy Trinity Brompton in London, his support for education through the Worshipful Company of Skinners, his enjoyment of Trinity House, a charity that oversees lighthouses around Britain, and his work with the King Edward VII Hospital Fund for London, to improve healthcare.
A man of wide-ranging interests, at home in the country and the city, with insight and integrity, Michael was impeccable in dress and his sense of courtesy. When his nephew Alastair Bruce, the Sky News royal correspondent, was staying at his London flat, he overfilled his bath, flooding the floor. Alastair apologised profusely, only to hear Michael apologising to him that the overflow pipe had not worked properly.