Robert Lang Fleming MD of RL Fleming

Parents:

• Birth*: Robert Lang Fleming MD of RL Fleming was born in September 1922 at St Clement, Dundee, Angus, Scotland, .²
• He was the son of Robert Lang Fleming and Nelly Hood McAra.¹
• (Groom) Marriage*: Robert Lang Fleming MD of RL Fleming married Norma Hawtyn Milne, daughter of David Strachan Milne motor engineer and Dora Fawkes Robertson, in 1948 at Montrose, Angus, Scotland, .^3,4
• Obituary: The obituary of Robert Lang Fleming MD of RL Fleming was was published on 12 November 2012 at Dundee, Scotland, . Robert Lang Fleming: Dundee industrial giant
  
  The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)12 Nov 2012by Andrew Argo aargo@thecourier.co.uk
  
  ROBERT LANG Fleming, a major figure in Dundee’s modern industrial history, has died at the age of 90.
  
  He was managing director of Robert L Fleming Ltd at Seabraes Mill, off Perth Road, for 30 years until 1974 and saw it grow to the forefront of the sackmaking and specialist paper converter industry in the UK.
  
  His family had been involved in the Dundee textile trade for some 200 years, with his great-grandfather setting up a jute mill trading as DH Fleming & Sons.
  
  His father, also Robert Lang Fleming, left the family firm in 1932 to establish Robert L Fleming which manufactured hessian-backed paper sacks in the Kingsway Works in Clepington Road.
  
  Young Robert – or Bob as he was known – was educated at Dundee High School and in 1935 at the age of 13 his father decided he should leave to learn the trade.
  
  Four years later his father bought the Seabraes Mill and it became the building from which the company flourished.
  
  Bob went off to war and after Sandhurst was commissioned in the North Irish Horse, a tank regiment and served in North Africa and Italy.
  
  His father died while he was away and Bob returned to take over the firm as managing director, buying the business in 1950.
  
  Robert L Fleming pioneered the process of using whale oil from the South Atlantic and jute from the Indian subcontinent to laminate jute on to paper to make more durable and versatile sacks.
  
  The company prospered while the British jute industry went into decline, with Mr Fleming following a path of innovation which he believed was crucial to its future.
  
  Under his guidance Fleming successfully diversified into a wider range of paper products and found new ways to make sacks of greater strength for fertilizer, feedstuffs and cement.
  
  Robert L Fleming made some of the bestknown paper bags in Britain with a range of customers including British Sugar, Homepride, Spillers, ICI, St Ivel and Dairy Crest.
  
  The company grew into being the leading producer of sacks in Britain and employed around 200 people at Seabraes in Dundee and at Mold in Wales.
  
  In 1964 the company was sold to Billerud Aktiebolag of Sweden in an arrangement which secured access to Scandinavian forests for raw material supplies.
  
  He continued on the board for 10 years and after three years as a consultant he retired in 1977.
  
  He was replaced as managing director by John Picton, who in turn was succeeded by Harry Wills.
  
  In 1995 Robert L Fleming was sold by its parent company to another large Swedish concern, AssiDoman and the Seabraes Mill later closed.
  
  Bob’s wife Norma was from Montrose and the couple married in 1947.
  
  Tragically she died only six years later from leukaemia, leaving him with two young daughters, to whom he was devoted.
  
  When he retired he bought a house at Dornie overlooking Eilean Donan Castle and across to Skye and spent many summers pursuing his love of angling and gardening and welcoming his family and friends on their visits.
  
  For the rest of the year he stayed at his flat in Chelsea, where he developed an interest in local history and enjoyed photography and computing.
  
  Travel was another passion and each spring for many years, with one item of hand luggage, he spent two months in Asia and Australasia building up a massive archive of photography.
  
  Mr Fleming lived latterly in Guildford where he passed away. He is survived by his daughter Joyce, his older daughter Pam having died two years ago, by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
  Article Name:Robert Lang Fleming: Dundee industrial giant
  Publication:The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
  Author:by Andrew Argo aargo@thecourier.co.uk
  Start Page:12
  End Page:12.⁵
• (Deceased) Death*: He died in 2013 at London, England, .

• (Informant) Death: He registered the death of Richard Strachan Fleming on 20 March 1950 at Maryfield Hospital, Dundee, Angus, Scotland, ; 1950 deaths in the district of St Andrew in the burgh of Dundee, ref 196; Richard Strachan Fleming, 1950 March Twentieth 5h 0m am Maryfield Hospital Dundee, male aged 1 day, parents Robert Lang Fleming paperlining general manager and Norma Hawtyn Fleming MS Milne, congenital heart disease as cert by Jean E H Charlton MBChB, signed R L Fleming father 45 Forfar Road Dundee, registered 1950 March 21st at Dundee signed James D Clark assist registrar initialled NS Regs.⁶
• (Informant) Death: Robert Lang Fleming MD of RL Fleming registered the death of Norma Hawtyn Milne on 24 October 1953 at Kings Cross Hospital, Dundee, Angus, Scotland, ; 1953 deaths in the district of Dundee West in the burgh of Dundee, ref 830; Norma Hawtyn Fleming married to Robert Lang Fleming paper lining manufacturer, 1953 October Twenty-first 2h 15m am Kings Cross Hospital usual residence 45 Forfar Road Dundee, female aged 28 years, parents David Strachan Milne garage proprietor and Dora Fawkes Milne ms Robertson, acute monocytic leukaemia as cert by Margaret G Millar MBChB, signed R L Fleming widower, registered 1953 October 22nd at Dundee signed G D Macintosh assist registrar, initialled JEC registrar.³