Where did he come from?


Bernhard Baron was of French descent
but was born in Brest-litovsk in Russia in 1850.

At 17 he emigrated to America where he gained experience in the tobacco business and started the manufacture of handmade cigarettes.

He invented a machine for making cigarettes with a tobacco leaf cover.

In 1895 he came to England with a greatly refined machine and established the
Baron Cigarette Machine Company.

He later joined Carreras as a director,
working from an old Victorian shop in Wardour Street, London.

He set about building Carreras into
the international company it became.

What was he like?


He often appeared to have a hard, aggressive manner as a forceful and successful businessman but he had
a real and very personal interest in the well being of every one who worked for him.

In 1923 when welfare work in factories was little known he founded a superannuation fund for the workers with a substantial sum of money.

In 1929 he opened a convalescent home under his name at Brighton for the workers at Carreras.

The Bernhard Baron Trust gave financial help to
a number of hospitals and institutions in the 1930s,
including a laboratory at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The Homes received a large grant, and also a further one in 1950, when the Main Dining Hall/Kitchen and Corridor were built.

The final sentence of part of his speech in opening the convalescent home at Brighton sums up the man and also the spirit of our Home:-

"I have nearly three thousand employees
and I consider them my children,
and anything I can do for them I will do".

"I have very faithful people and they all work with all their zeal to do the best they can".

"THERE IS ONLY ONE HAPPINESS IN LIFE,
AND THAT IS TO PROTECT OTHERS AND TO GIVE TO OTHERS."