The Nissen Family.
Meet five generations of Nissens.
Georg Hermanus Nissen
The father of Peter Nissen (the inventor of the Nissen Hut), entered into the mining industry where he became an expert on the “stamp mill” – which was used to crush the gold ore. After several attempts he decided the current stamp was not efficient enough and invented a better model.
Lt Col Peter Norman Nissen
The Inventor of the Nissen Hut, was born in the USA in on the 6th August 1871. He attended Trinity College, North Carolina leaving in 1891. In 1896 he went to the mining school at Queens University Kingston. Peter Nissen was born in the USA in on the 6th August 1871. He attended Trinity College, North Carolina leaving in 1891. In 1896 he went to the mining school at Queens University Kingston Ontario.
Peter Charles Maitland Nissen
Peter Nissen was the elder son of Peter Norman Nissen and Lauretta Maitland. At Eton he made a boat then studied Engineering at Cambridge and rowed for them against Oxford (and won) in 1945.
He qualified as an accountant with what is now KPMG, then went independent and worked with a number of companies as the finance director, including one of the early washing machine companies Dishlex. Later he joined ran Camvac one of the leading Vacuum metallizing companies which coated very thin sheets of plastic films with aluminium in a high vacuum. This company flourished. He set up the plant in the USA and they won a Queen’s award for Exports.
Richard Nissen
Read Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) then joined Llewellyn-Davies, Woods Forrestier-Walker and Bor architects and town planners where he was sent to live in Iran to plan a new town centre for Tehran. The project ended with the fall of the Shah and Richard then went to start up his father’s Camvac operation in the USA where he lived until 1979. In 1980 he started one of the first Serviced Office operations in London: Business Space. Then in 1992 invented the Virtual Office. In 2002 Richard decided to change direction and become a plumber and a year later started his own plumbing company: Staunch and Flow Ltd. Sold in Jan 2010. Since then he has spent his time restoring small wooden boats. He has an interest in how animals navigate.
George Nissen
Founding director, George Nissen, graduated in Interior Architecture at the esteemed Inchbald School of Design in 2011, and went on to set up his own interior architecture design practice based in West London. He comes from a long and illustrious line of inventors and is the Great Grandson of Peter Norman Nissen, the creator of the original Nissen Hut used in the First and Second World Wars for housing and shelter. One Hundred years on, and recognising a beautiful, sleek design in his Great Grandfather’s huts, George has put his well-honed design skills to great use and updated and improved the original Nissen hut for the modern age.
- Georg Hermanus Nissen1832-1913 // Married Annie Lavinia
- Peter Norman Nissen1871-1930 // Married Lauretta Maitland
- Peter Charles Maitland Nissen1925-2012 // Married Audrey
- Richard NissenBorn 1949 // Married Juliet
- George NissenBorn 1986 // Married Charlotte
- Lauretta Nissen1950-1968
- Anthony NissenBorn 1951 // Married Karen
- Charles NissenBorn 1984
- Eddie NissenBorn 1985
- Laura NissenBorn 1991
- George NissenBorn 1930 // Married Jane
- Dinah NissenBorn 1959 // Married Elizabeth
- IsabellaBorn 2005
- Timothy NissenBorn 1964
- Rosanna NissenBorn 1961 // Married Richard Simons
- Emily SimonsBorn 1990
- Ben SimonsBorn 1992
- Edmund NissenBorn 1967