Tony Hayward, or more properly, Sir Anthony Hayward, passed away peacefully at dawn on March 4 at his home in England. He was surrounded by love — with his wife, Jenifer, and their children, Charlotte, Emma, Simon and Charles, by his side.

As one of his old friends, I write this memoir as a tribute to him, rather than as a traditional obituary.

Love and affection were very much a part of Tony’s life, not simply for his family but also for the environment in which he grew up, worked, married, raised children — Calcutta and Bengal. He was the second son and third child of Eric Hayward — probably better known as the man behind Hayward’s Gin.

Tony was educated in wartime Britain, served in the Royal Navy for a short time before coming out to Calcutta in 1948 and joining the firm of Shaw Wallace. Those were the days of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club races, of Gymkhana races and golf at the Tollygunge Club, of Firpo’s, Prince’s, and the 300 Club, patronized by British businessmen, by maharajas and their ilk, and, earlier, by that infamous politician, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.

On Sunday evenings, it was fashionable to go to cinemas like Metro, Lighthouse and New Empire for the six o’clock show, followed by dinner and dancing. Like his peers, Tony involved himself in these activities, but he had other interests too. At a place called Chandpara, outside Calcutta, Tony set up a shooting camp where his many friends and he would spend their weekends. A keen motorist, Tony’s pride and joy was his Bentley Drophead.

Sooner or later, Cupid stepped in and his arrow found its mark. Tony courted and married Jenifer McCay on January 3, 1955, at Calcutta’s St Paul’s Cathedral. She was the daughter of Frank McCay, a highly qualified doctor skilled in tropical medicine, and his beautiful wife, Betty, whose portrait adorned his consulting room.

Tony and Jenifer were blessed with four children — Charlotte, Emma, Simon and Charles — whose initials, Tony would quip in later years, were those of the CESC, Calcutta’s power supplier.

Tony rose to become the chairman of Shaw Wallace, by now a very prosperous company. In 1973-74, he was elected president of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India — which earned him a knighthood from the British monarch.

Leaving Calcutta, Tony spent some years in Singapore with Sime Darby, which controlled Shaw Wallace at that time, and eventually retired to England. His heart, however, had never left Calcutta, and a number of visits took place, climaxing with the celebration, at the Tollygunge Club, on January 3, 2005, of his and Jenifer’s 50th wedding anniversary, in the presence of all their children and grandchildren.

Among the invitees, those who vividly remember the occasion was the silversmith, Maniklal Das, whose father, Kalipada Das, founded the modest establishment bearing his name on Sambhunath Pandit Street. Father and son were silversmiths for Frank McCay and his colleague, Maurice Shellim, besides Bob and Anne Wright, that other English couple who could never desert Calcutta and Bengal.

Tony is no longer among us but the Haywards remain in India. Charlotte and Simon have set up a boutique hotel in Goa, which has had rave reviews. Fittingly, these two siblings have been given the honourary status of persons of Indian origin.

Tony and Jenifer’s very close friends, “Kutty” Narayan and Ashok Malik, have provided valuable inputs for this memoir, as have the descendants of the eminent Calcutta barrister, Sachin Chaudhuri, whose forebears, Chaudhuri & Co, were the ‘banyas’ to Shaw Wallace. A Chaudhuri would be on the Shaw Wallace board until that firm changed hands.