Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997
Click here to subscribe and connect!
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997
Click here to subscribe and connect!
|
|
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LAP-LEO |
|
|
LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (18061857) , British soldier and statesman in India, brother of the 1st Lord Lawrence (q.v.), was born at Matara, Ceylon, on the 28th of June 18o6. He inherited his father's stern devotion to duty and Celtic impulsiveness, tempered by his mother's gentleness and power of organization. Early in 1823 he joined the Bengal Artillery at the Calcutta suburb of Dum Dum, where also Henry Havelock
village
begun under the tripartite treaty signed at Lahore on the loth of June 1838. But the Sikhs were slow to play their part after the calamities in Afghanistan. No one but Henry Lawrence could manage the disorderly contingent which they reluctantly supplied to Pollock's avenging army in 1842. He helped to force the Khyber Pass on the 5th of April, playing his guns from the heights, for 8 and 20 M. In recognition of his services Lord Ellenborough appointed him to the charge of the valley of Dehra Dun and its hill stations, MVIussoorie and Landour, where he first formed the idea of asylums for the children of European soldiers. After a month's experience there it was discovered that the appointment was the legal right of the civil service, and he was transferred, as assistant to the envoy at Lahore, to Umballa, where he reduced to order the lapsed territory of Kaithal. Soon he received the office of resident at the protected court of Nepal, where, assisted by his wife, he began a series of contributions to the Calcutta Review, a selected volume of which forms an Anglo-Indian classic. There, too, he elaborated his plans which resulted in the erection and endowment of the noblest philanthropic establishments in the Eastthe Lawrence military asylums at Sanawar (on the road to Simla), at Murree in the Punjab, at Mount
pittance for his children, to this and other forms of charity.The Review articles led the new governor -general, Lord Hardinge, to summon Lawrence to his side during the first Sikh War; and not these articles only. He had published the results of his experience of Sikh rule and soldiering in a vivid work, the Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Ranjit Singh (1845), in which he vainly attempted to disguise his own personality and exploits. After the doubtful triumphs of Moodkee and Ferozshah Lawrence was summoned from Nepal to take the place of Major George Broadfoot, who had fallen. Aliwal came; then the guns of Sobraon chased the demoralized Sikhs across the Sutlej. All through the smoke Lawrence was at the side of the governor -general. He gave his voice, not for the rescue of the people from anarchy by annexation, but for the reconstruction of the Sikh government, and was himself appointed resident at Lahore, with power " over every department and to any extent " as president of the council of regency till the maharaja Dhuleep Singh should come of age. Soon disgusted by the " venal and selfish durbar " who formed his Sikh colleagues, he summoned to his side assistants like Nicholson, James Abbott and Edwardes, till they all did too much for the people, as he regretfully confessed. But " my chief
chief
commissioner
In the comparative rest of Rajputana he once more took up the pen as an army reformer. In March and September 1856 he published two articles, called forth by conversations with Lord Dalhousie at Calcutta, whither he had gone as the hero of a public banquet. The governor-general had vainly warnedthe home authorities against reducing below 40,000 the British garrison of India even for the Crimean War, and had sought to improve the position of the sepoys. Lawrence pointed out the latent causes of mutiny, and uttered warnings to be too soon justified. In March 1857 he yielded to Lord Canning's request that he should then take the helm at Lucknow, but it was too late
week he had completed those preparations which made the defence of the Lucknow residency for ever memorable. Amid the deepening gloom Lord Canning ever wrote home of him as " a tower of strength," and he was appointed provisional governor-general. On the 3oth of May mutiny burst forth in Oudh, and he was ready. On the 29th of June, pressed by fretful colleagues, and wasted by unceasing toil, he led 336 British soldiers with It guns and 220 natives out of Chinhat to reconnoitre the insurgents, when the natives joined the enemy and the residency was besieged. On the 2nd of July, as he lay exhausted by the day's work and the terrific heat in an exposed room, a shell struck him, and in forty-eight hours he was no more. A baronetcy was conferred on his son. A marble statue was placed in St Paul's as the national memorial of one who has been declared to be the noblest man that has lived and died for the good of India.His biography was begun by Sir Herbert Edwardes, and-completed (2 vols. 1872) by Herman Merivale. See also J. J. McLeod Innes, Sir Henry Lawrence (" Rulers of India " series ), 1898.End of Article: LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (18061857) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/LAP_LEO/LAWRENCE_SIR_HENRY_MONTGOMERY_.html"> LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (18061857) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) LAWRENCE, JOHN LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, 1ST BARON (... |
(Next) LAWRENCE, SIR THOMAS (17691830) |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
|
Sponsored Advertisements
