My friend Edward Oakley, who has died aged 78, headed Obeetee, India’s leading carpet and rug company. His family had a long connection with India, having first established their hand-knotted carpet business in the 19th century, in Mirzapur, a town (now a city) on the banks of the Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
However it was Edward who modernised the operation of the company by erecting a mechanical dye plant and centralising the finishing and packing. He insisted on the highest quality and concentrated on foreign markets. From 1969, his company was the country’s largest exporter of rugs and carpets to the US and Europe.
Obeetee, so named after the three traders who set it up, Oakley, Bowden and Taylor, had the distinction of being the first brand partner of the Wools of New Zealand mark. It was also the world’s first licensee, in 1997, of the Woolmark for hand-knotted rugs. The company received the government of India award for being the largest exporter of rugs and carpets several times.
Born in Cawnpore (now called Kanpur), a sprawling city in Uttar Pradesh, Edward was the son of Wilfred Oakley and Elaine (nee Burnett). He boarded at Rossall school in Lancashire, after which he qualified as a chartered accountant. Aged 23, he returned to the family business in Mirzapur and was made to start at the bottom of the rung, learning the trade with the artisans and weavers.
In the years after Indian independence in 1947, many British businessmen decided to leave India, but Edward decided to stay on.
He never married – he once told me that he was married to India. He genuinely believed that it was his duty to strengthen the Indo-British connection. When one of his employees died a few years ago he adopted his daughters. He made sure that his company never used child labour and the weavers who worked for him held him in the highest respect.
In 2012 he retired after he sold his company, but the Indian owners insisted on appointing him chairman emeritus. He moved to Noida, a satellite city of Delhi, where he indulged his passion for modern Indian art. He encouraged many young painters and patronised publications such as Nartanam, a classical dance magazine. He spent his summers with his sister, Sally, who lives near Swansea, south Wales, and in the winters Sally would go to Mirzapur.
I first met Edward when visiting his carpet business with a mutual friend. He told me that he held the Guardian in high esteem because of its editorial independence. I and his many friends all over the world always looked forward to reading his end-of-the-year letter that summed up his views on life, politics and the environment.
He is survived by his daughters, Meenu and Ekta, and by Sally.
