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DEWAR’S TRUE SCOTCH PRESENTS JOHN DEWAR AND SONS
STEPHEN MARSHALL MALTS MANAGER. This is where it all began. This is the last remaining wall of the original croft where John was raised. And this croft was owned by his father before him and his father before him.
Pretty amazing for me to stand here and to see the view that he would have looked out on and imagine him walking down from here to school, and then imagine him walking from here 25 miles to Perth, to get started in the whisky trade.
JACQUI SEARGEANT SENIOR ARCHIVIST. John Alexander Dewar worked alongside his father for many years, and became a partner with him in the 1870s. So when his father died in 1880, it was natural for John Alexander Dewar to take over the business. And one of the most important things that he set down in the coming years was the building of Aberfeldy distillery.
This is John Alexander Dewar’s great legacy to us. It guarantees that we have a great quality single malt to be at the heart of all of our Scotches.
John Alexander Dewar was the serious business mind, the financial mind behind the business, while Thomas Dewar was publicising the company and creating the demand for Dewar’s.
Dewar House was Tommy Dewar’s embassy in London. The building’s beautiful – it really summed up Scotch whisky coming into London.
He never missed a trick to promote Dewar’s, it was something he constantly did in everything he did. And we’ve got loads of examples in the archive, but the one we’ve got here is a patent that he produced – branding on the wheels of things like bikes and wagons, and when they rolled along they would leave behind Dewar’s branding on the streets.
Tommy Dewar is the Savoy’s longest-running resident, and the Savoy was really an important place in London at the start of the 20th century. It was the start of cocktail culture and Tommy was really involved in that. Can you imagine the hotel bill that Tommy ran up in his time staying in a hotel for almost 30 years?