© D L Coffee & Tea |


Jose De Lamauta was born in 1864 in Portugal. In 1889 he began a small coffee business in Lisbon where he started by roasting coffee from Columbia in his small corner store. The business became very successful. He gradually expanded his range of coffees which mainly came from South America. He stayed in this business until 1944 when for reasons only known to the family, he was deported to New Zealand. Murray Connolly is Jose's grandson by marriage. (Murray is the little boy in shorts) and purely by chance, Murray decided to go into the coffee business, not knowing that his grandfather had been in the same industry until later. Murray started his own coffee company in Auckland New Zealand in 1965 by the name of Robert Harris Tea & Coffee and it grew to be one of the largest Coffee Companies there. Robert Harris had retail stores in every major town throughout New Zealand. Murray retired in New Zealand some time back and moved to Australia. Realising that there was an opening here, he has returned from retirement and is now starting to do something similar here. |
Family History |