When Jack Eden lost his job in the Asian financial crisis, Sri Lanka called and he never looked back
- He explains how he went from Hong Kong banker to pioneering holiday villa entrepreneur, and in the process restored his own Galle Fort colonial home
- Eden Villas was founded in 2000 to project manage renovations and, once completed, manage and offer those properties for short-term holiday rentals
Saved by the prime minister: I was born in London, in 1966, but my family moved soon after to Wiltshire, in southwest England. Life growing up was a “boy’s own” adventure, mostly spent outdoors; fun, happy and free, punctured with periods of confinement at boarding school. Anthony Eden (British prime minister from 1955 to 1957) was my great uncle; my grandfather’s younger brother. Two of their brothers were killed in World War I.
AE (Anthony Eden) was always immaculately attired, extremely charming and kind. He saved my life by pulling me out of his fish pond, which I toppled into as a three-year-old. My maternal grandfather, Sir John Pascoe, knighted in 1957 for services to industry, was one of the first to recognise the importance of mental health, devoting 70 acres at his factory in Northamptonshire for his employees’ pleasure and sport. One of his relations was Jane Pascoe, who, as a suffragette, was jailed for fighting for women’s right to vote in the UK.
New life, new wife: I had visited Hong Kong when my sister lived there and always wanted to return. The opportunity arose in 1990. I had completed a short service commission in the Household Division, the Life Guards (the part of the British Army responsible for state ceremonial and public duties), and so was looking for employment. I packed a bag and went. I met Jo, my wife, within six hours of arriving. I knew one person in Hong Kong and stayed with him. On arriving from the airport, he advised we were going out to a drinks party, where I met Jo. I proposed 13 days later.
After the Romanesque, Gothic, Palladian and Baroque architecture of London, Hong Kong was a city of cloud-piercing glass towers. It was new, daring and exciting. Anything was possible. Life was fast and there was an overriding urgency. But although everything – work, sport, socialising – was done to the max, everyone, from a CEO down, would give you some of their time. This created opportunity and Hong Kong was full of them.
Serendipity: In 1998, we went to Sri Lanka for a holiday and what we found was the antithesis to Hong Kong. She was, and still is, a lush tropical paradise. We relaxed, slowed down and were enthralled. Our small children took their first tentative steps on grass. The pause allowed some reflection on how we wanted to live. We talked endlessly about living there.
The years 1997-98 saw the Asian financial crisis. The day I arrived back at work for (private bank) Coutts, in Hong Kong, I was advised that the desk I worked on was to close. I left that day. Four weeks later we were arriving back in Sri Lanka with our two children, Maddie and Nico, and Oscar, our three-legged dog.