page_title: Antonin Besse
section_title: Business activities in Aden
hierarchical_section_title: Antonin Besse / Business activities in Aden
caption_attribution_description: English: Headquarters of A. Besse &amp; Co. (Aden) Ltd. on Aidrus Road, Crater, Aden. Built in 1914, it remained the center of operations of French-born Antonin Besse's trading empire until his death in 1951. Photograph from the 1940s or early 1950s. Français&#160;: Siège de A. Besse &amp; Co. (Aden) Ltd. sur Aidrus Road, Crater, Aden. Construit en 1914 par l'homme d'affaires d'origine française Antonin Besse, cet immeuble devait rester le centre des opérations du petit empire commercial de Besse jusqu'à la mort de ce dernier en 1951.
context_page_description: Sir Antonin Besse KBE was a French-born businessman based in Aden, where he spent most of his adult life. St Antony's College, Oxford was established in 1950 as a result of a large donation he made to the university.
context_section_description: Besse built the headquarters of his company in Aidrus Road, Crater, the building continued to be the centre of operations until his death in 1951. The ground floor of the building consisted of warehouses and stores, the second floor consisted of offices, staff rooms and rest rooms, and on the third floor a luxury apartment acted as his residence. Later, he built a distinctive and unique villa on top of Ras Marshag, Crater. The villa became a private residence of the leader who rules Yemen.
  The year 1934 saw the launch of diversified projects, a soap factory in Crater, but he had transferred the factory in following year to Mualla, where he upgraded the factory machines further. In 1937 another factory was built next to the soap factory for the production of coconut oil and a third plant for the production of glycerin. He was also active in shipbuilding and he was the first in Aden to install a diesel engine on local sailing ships (Dhows) in 1936.
  When Besse traveled to Mukalla on a sailing ship, the journey was slow and uncomfortable, prompting him to establish in 1936 an airline company with a capital of five thousand pounds, dubbed Arabian Airways, the fleet consisted of two small planes, each with a capacity of four seats. His idea was to connect the port city of Aden and Hadhramaut region, but one of the planes crashed after one year of operation and replaced by another, then the second plane crashed at the Tarim airport in 1938, due to losses incurred he decided to close the company the following year in 1939.
  His company – A. Besse & Co. (Aden) Ltd – was agent of many insurance, airlines and shipping companies. He also managed to get an agency of the Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, a business that brought fortune to his trading empire.
caption: Headquarters of A. Besse & Co., Aden
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