Henry Lawrence (Indian Army officer)
Sir Henry Lawrence | |
---|---|
First Anglo-Sikh War
Second Anglo-Sikh War
Indian Mutiny
| |
Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
Spouse(s) |
Chief Commissioner of Awadh |
Background
Lawrence was born in June 1806 into an
In 1812, Lawrence, along with his elder brothers Alexander and George, was sent to
Early career
On passing out from Addiscombe in 1822 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the
Lawrence set sail for India on 2 September 1829 with his brother John, who had recently completed his studies at the East India Company College.[8] The brothers parted company in Calcutta, and Lawrence rejoined his regiment in Karnal on the Sikh frontier, where his elder brother George was now stationed.[7] In 1831 he was transferred to the horse artillery in Cawnpore and the following year he passed examinations in Hindustani and Persian with the aim of earning a civil service posting.[9]
Revenue Survey of India
In 1833 he was appointed an assistant to the Revenue Survey of India by
"Captain Lawrence is one of the most experienced and zealous of the officers employed in the survey, and has conducted the process of double survey more successfully than perhaps any other...Captain Lawrence is prepared to guarantee a complete survey of three thousand square miles per annum when the villages average one square mile each."
Lawrence went on to successfully accomplish this guarantee, and earned the nickname "Gunpowder" from
Ferozepore
In October 1838, in the run up to the
Peshawar
When news of disaster came from
In January 1843, Lawrence left Ferozepur when he was appointed superintendent of
Resident at Nepal
Lawrence arrived in Kathmandu in November 1843, leaving his wife behind as European women were not allowed to enter the Kingdom at that present time.[19] Shortly after arriving, as a gesture of goodwill, Honoria was granted a rare exception to join her husband. During his time in Nepal, under instruction not to interfere in the internal administration of the Kingdom, Lawrence devoted much of his time to literary pursuits, ably assisted by his wife.[20] He wrote a defence of Sir William Macnaghten which included passages foreshadowing the later mutiny of 1857, in which he lamented the blind self-confidence of British policy in India, the unpreparedness for disaffection, a lack of supplies, and the weakness of British garrisons. He also became a contributor to the Calcutta Review edited by Sir John Kaye. In an article titled the Military Defence of our Indian Empire, he insisted on the need for the Government to be ready for war at all times, a view which was challenged by his editor. It was whilst in Kathmandu that Lawrence and his wife first proposed the idea of homes in the cooler hills for the children of serving British officers.[21]
Punjab
In 1845, instability in the
Lahore Durbar
Following Sobraon, Lawrence counselled the Governor-General not to annex the Punjab but instead reconstruct the Sikh Empire, fenced in and fortified by British bayonets.[22] This was provided for in the Treaty of Lahore, whereby a British garrison was to be based in Lahore to further this purpose. Lawrence spent the next three months as the agent in Lahore.[24] In his diaries, Lawrence would later write of his intentions in his role:[25]
"The basis of our arrangements, however, was: first, the reduction of the army to the lowest number required to defend the frontier and preserve internal peace, and to pay that army punctually; second, to strike off the most obnoxious taxes and, as far as possible, equalise and moderate the assessment of the country and insure what was collected reaching the public treasury; thirdly to have a very simple code of laws, founded on the Sikh customs, reduced to writing and administered by the most respectable men from their own ranks."
During this time, he assisted in the sale of Kashmir to Gulab Singh, the Raja of Jammu as war indemnity, a move which caused considerable unrest in Lahore. When a rebellion broke out, presumed to have been instigated by Lal Singh in support of the existing Sikh governor, Lawrence personally accompanied a body of Sikh troops to Kashmir in support of Gulab Singh.[26] Through his support of Gulab Singh, Lawrence was able to wield significant power over the new Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, inducing the leader to abolish sati, female infanticide and child slavery throughout his dominions, and attracting considerable financial support for his later philanthropic endeavours.[26]
The terms of the initial treaty had permitted British troops to remain until the end of 1846. However at the request of the Lahore Durbar that troops remain until the new Maharajah reached 16, the Treaty of Bhairowal was signed. A key condition of the Treaty was that a Resident British officer, with an efficient establishment of assistants, was to be appointed by the Governor-General to remain at Lahore, with "full authority to direct and control all matters in every Department of the State. Maulvi Sayed Rajab Ali of Jagraon (Ludhiana Dist) a close confidant of Sir Henry Lawrence played an important role in these negotiations".[27] Lawrence was appointed to the role of Resident, and began assembling a team of officer assistants, who would become known as Henry Lawrence's "Young Men".
Interlude
In 1848, following a year of relative peace in the Punjab, Lawrence was granted sick leave and accompanied Henry Hardinge to England where he was made a
Board of Administration
The new
Despite the success of the Board of Administration, internal tensions had arisen and the new Governor General, Lord Dalhousie, preferred to invest power in the hands of single administrator. Part of the reason for this was Lawrence's insistence on compensating the Sikh nobility and aristocracy who had suffered ruin following defeat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. Lawrence, mindful of the potential for discontent to be sewn by disgruntled aristocrats, liberally offered financial assistance, a policy opposed by both his brother John and Dalhousie[31] Both Lawrence and his brother John tendered their resignation, however Dalhousie chose John as his new Lieutenant-Governor. Dalhousie explained his decision by stating that after some years of military administration in the Punjab, there was now a need for a civil administration to which John Lawrence would be more suited.[32] The decision deeply hurt Henry who felt he had proved his self-taught civil administrative abilities over the course of the previous twenty years.[32]
Oude and Rajputana
Lawrence began his new role as the Governor-General's Agent in Rajputana in 1853. Much of his energy was devoted to two principal causes, the abolition of widow-burning in Rajputana and reforming the prison system.[33] Whilst in Rajputana his wife Honoria died and his health began to fail, prompting first a desire to succeed Sir James Outram as Resident at Lucknow, for which he was overlooked for a civilian, and thereafter a desire to undertake leave to England.
In 1856,
Siege of Lucknow
In May 1857, two months after assuming his post in
On the morning of 30 June, despite being weak and exhausted with illness, he led a march towards Nawabgunj to confront some mutinous regiments approaching Lucknow. Around six or seven miles from Lucknow he encountered 15,000 soldiers with thirty guns and soon after the artillery of the Oude irregular force deserted his command and joined the mutineers.[32] Significantly outnumbered Lawrence was forced into a retreat, suffering heavy losses. On their return, the Residency was soon besieged by mutineers and the Siege of Lucknow commenced. On 1 July, a shell burst into his quarters in the upper part of the Residency, and despite pleas from his officers he refused to move his quarters to a safer area. The following day, whilst lying on a couch, a shell burst beside him and shattered his thigh. Dr Joseph Fayrer was summoned to provide consultation, and decided that amputation would only increase his suffering, and was likely to shorten his life. Fayrer gave him three days to live. Lawrence lingered until the second day, and died at approximately eight in the morning on 4 July 1857.
He was buried that same evening in a soldier's grave, and it is said that not a single officer saw the lowering of his body into the ground so furious was the fighting raging at the time.[32] When Lawrence was critically injured and aware he was dying, he gave final orders to his nominated successor at Lucknow, Major John Banks, who immediately recorded them in writing. The twelfth among his fourteen directions was "Put on my tomb only this; Here lies Henry Lawrence who tried to do his duty."[37] This epitaph appears on his tombstone at the Residency graveyard.
Educational institutions
Lawrence established institutions for the education of the children of British soldiers, known as the
Following the Disruption of 1843, along with Sir James Outram, Lawrence supported Reverend Alexander Duff in establishing the Free Church Institution in Calcutta, as a rival institution to the General Assembly's Institution, which had been founded by Duff in 1830.[38][39] These two institutions would later be merged to form the Scottish Churches College, known since 1929 (when the Church of Scotland was unified) as Scottish Church College.[40]
Family life
Lawrence married Honoria Marshall at
Works
- Lawrence, H. M. L. (1845). Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh. London: Henry Colburn.
- Lawrence, Henry Montgomery (1859). Essays, Military and Political, Written in India. London: W. H. Allen & Co.
- Lawrence also contributed to the Calcutta Review.
Commemoration
Lawrence is commemorated by a
He is also remembered in the names of:
- Henry Lawrence Island in the Indian Ocean, at 12N 93E.
- The town of Lawrence in New Zealand.
- The Lawrence Arms public house in Southsea, Hampshire.
References
- ^ a b James Wills, The Irish Nation: Its History and Its Biography, Volume 4, A. Fullarton, 1876, p. 96.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 4.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 11.
- OL 23336661M.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 6.
- ^ a b John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 392.
- ^ a b Buckland, Charles Edward, Dictionary of Indian Biography, 1906, London : S. Sonnenschein, p. 246.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 22.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 393.
- ^ a b Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 40.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 43.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, pp. 48–50.
- ^ a b John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 402.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 63.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 65.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 66.
- ^ a b c John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 404.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, pp. 85–86.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, p. 89.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 408.
- ^ Gibbon, Frederick P., The Lawrences of the Punjab, London, J.M. Dent & co., 1908, pp. 100–104.
- ^ a b c John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 409.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 411.
- ISBN 969-35-1766-0.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 418.
- ^ a b John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 416.
- ^ Article 2 of the Treaty of Bhyroval.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 422.
- ^ Colonel George Bruce Malleson, The Decisive Battles of India From 1746 To 1849 Inclusive, Pickle Partners Publishing, 15 August 2014.
- OL 23336661M.
- ^ a b John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 431.
- ^ OL 23336661M.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 437.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 450.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 452.
- ^ John William Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers, 1899, W. H. Allen, p. 474.
- ^ G. Hutchinson, Narrative of the Mutinies in Oude, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1859, pp. 168–169.[1]
- ^ Pitlochry Church of Scotland's obituary of Alexander Duff Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The missionary’s mission in Calcutta
- ^ "History of Scottish Church College" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ "The Late Sir Henry Lawrence, K.C.B." Times [London, England] 24 August 1857: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 April 2013.
- Sinclair, W.pp. 459/60: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 305–306.
Further reading
- "Lawrence, Sir Henry Montgomery". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16179. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Edwardes, Michael. The Necessary Hell: John and Henry Lawrence and the Indian Empire (Cassell, 1958)
- Vibart, H. M. (1894). Addiscombe: its heroes and men of note. Westminster: Archibald Constable. pp. 353–64. OL 23336661M.
- James John McLeod Innes (1898). Sir Henry Lawrence: The Pacificator. Rulers of India series. Clarendon Press.
External links
- Illustrated London News 24 Oct 1863 – p.415 The Lawrence Asylum at Murree
- The Second Anglo Sikh War
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
- Lawrence School, Lovedale
- Lawrence College, Ghora Gali, Murree, Pakistan
- Lawrence School, Sanawar
- Portraits of Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London