Tim Bergqvist was born on 17 July 1931 and after attending Bradfield and Cambridge spent much of his early life in the Middle East before returning to develop family interests in Portugal.
Tim had a most interesting, exotic life full of adventures and stories. He grew up in Northern Portugal as an only child at the family pulp mill miles from anywhere. After his English education, his love of adventure and travel got the better of him and he went to work for an agent of Hawker Siddeley in Cairo. Espionage and politics in post-war Egypt meant that he had to leave quickly by boat to Beirut. He had to drop his passport overboard en route and was met in Beirut by the English Consul carrying an envelope with a new passport.
In the late fifties and sixties Tim worked for Dunlop in Beirut successfully building up its Middle East operations. He was responsible for securing the largest Dunlop deal ever in the building of the Aswan dam. He met and married Patricia, his wife of over 60 years and had three children, Sophia (current Warden of Bradfield), Philip (G 75-80) and Juliet. After a sojurn in Italy, the family returned to live in England in the 1970s when he became Chairman of the family pulp business, Caima, and Vice Chairman of Eucalyptus Pulp Mill, the UK quoted company. The family was based in Buckinghamshire so Tim spent much time commuting to Portugal.
In 1987 he successfully negotiated the sale of Eucalyptus Pulp Mills and for the first time had some capital to invest in the Douro vineyard, Quinta de la Rosa, he had inherited from
his mother. It was his idea to take advantage of the change of the port wine rules allowing small quintas to produce port and sell it directly from their vineyards. Together with his
daughter, Sophia, they were one of the first quintas to do this as well as to start making table wines from port grapes and to open their doors to tourism. In Tim’s later life it gave him enormous pleasure to see the quinta prospering and in particular to have it return to being an independent producer for the first time since the days of his grandfather, a hundred years previously.
Tim’s entrepreneurial spirit was not confined to la Rosa. He got involved in many successful start-ups including a transport company operating between Portugal and England, Interoute; a couple of canal boat companies (some good free holidays) and Vitality, an orange juice company as well as an interest in a Canadian company, Stake Technology.
Tim was often described as a ‘true’ gentleman, a perfect host with delightful manners. A kind, patient and welcoming man, witty, charismatic, a great raconteur, enriching people’s
lives with many stories. He was tolerant, thoughtful and always trustworthy. Generous to a fault, unselfish, loyal and modest to the core, he touched the hearts of many.
