Gerard Willem Charles Lemmens (1940-)

Gerard Willem Charles Lemmens was born on 24 April 1940 in Malang, a hill-station in East Java, in the Dutch East Indies then, now Indonesia. .

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His family came to the Netherlands in March 1946 after a traumatic time during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies from 1942 to 15 August 1945 when they first were put into Camp Malang and later on in the Prison Banjoe Biroe in mid Java, see for instance for this period in history the publication Silenced Voices by Inez Hollander. He went to primary school in Nijmegen and the H.B.S. in Hengelo(O) in the Netherlands after which he studied Tropical Agriculture at college in Deventer, The Netherlands, where he specialized in Cane Sugar. He came to the U.K. in 1966 and did a practical time with Whitbread Brewery in Chiswell street, London as part of his 2 year Heineken training to become a Brewmaster with Heineken. He returned in 1967 to attend a post graduate year at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in Biochemistry and Brewing Science, where he met his wife, Gillian Lesley Macleod, the niece of his professor Dr. Anna MacGillivray Macleod. He started working for Bass Charrington in 1968 at their Tennent Caledonian Brewery (Wellpark Brewery) in Glasgow moving for them to London and then through Bass International to Mechelen/Malines (Lamot Brewery) then back to London Charringtons and back to Glasgow as their R & D Brew master. He then joined in 1973 the Hop Merchants Morris Hanbury Jackson to build the Hopfix pelleting plant at Beltring, Kent. In 1975 he was made their Brewing consultant and sales Director followed by a partnership of Morris Hanbury Jackson. He worked in the Hop industry in various other capacities - Director Lupofresh Ltd., Chairman and Managing Director Lemmens Hesselberger Ltd., Consultant to The Brewing Research Foundation, Vice-President Morris Hanbury U.S.A., Vice-Chairman English Hop Merchant Association, National Chairman Allied Brewery Traders Association (now BFBi), U.K. Representative to the E.C.Hop Commission, Vice-President U.S.A Hop Research Council, Sales Director Yakima Chief Hops Inc., President Lemmens Hop Division of Brewers Supply Group Inc, until retirement in November 2005. In 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Hop.

He met his future wife - Gillian Lesley Macleod - in Edinburgh in January 1968, got engaged in Amsterdam 21 June 1968 and married in the Magdalen Chapel, Cowgate, in Edinburgh (the Heriot-Watt University chapel) 7 December 1968. Gillian Lesley Macleod is the daughter of Dr. John George Macleod and Nancy Elizabeth Clark. Gerard and Gillian Lemmens  have two sons - Michael, who lives in London and Hamish - who lives with his wife Charlie and his sons - Zak & Solomon - in la Thuile near Granier in the French Alps and one daughter - Claire-Louise married to Jon Symonds, who live with their children - Oliver and Natasha - in Bristol. He is very pround that they started and run the charity - Rege Foundation - in the North of India for physically and mentally handy-capped children! Gerard was from an early age very interested in fine art (bought at auctions at the age of 16) and genealogy from the age of 19. He published in 1989 for his parents 60th wedding anniversary a book about his family's history - Het smeden geslacht Lemmens van Oelbroeck (St. Anthonis) vier eeuwen in het land van Cuijk (The blacksmith family Lemmens van Oelbroeck (St. Anthonis) four centuries in the Land van Cuijk). He is also compiling together with his wife and her 3rd cousin, Donny Macleod of Laxay, a genealogy about his wife's family - the Macleod family of Lewis - with the side branch of the Macleods of Pabbay and Uig. He is also working on another publication - a parentage of the Lemmens family.