Henry Montgomery Lawrence

Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB
Born	(1806-06-28)28 June 1806 Ceylon
Died	Lucknow, British India
Allegiance	United Kingdom East India Company
Service/branch	Bengal Army
Years of service	1823–1857
Rank	Brigadier-General
Unit	Bengal Artillery
Battles/wars	First Burmese War First Anglo-Afghan War First Anglo-Sikh War Second Anglo-Sikh War Indian Mutiny
Awards	Army of India Medal Candahar, Ghuznee, Cabul Medal Sutlej Medal Punjab Medal India General Service Medal Indian Mutiny Medal
Relations	John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence Sir George St Patrick Lawrence
Other work	Resident Minister at Lahore Chief Commissioner of Awadh

Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB (28 June 1806 – 4 July 1857) was a British soldier and statesman in India, who died defending Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. Henry Montgomery Lawrence is still well remembered in Indian subcontinent due to being the founder of four Lawrence Military Asylums.

Career

Henry Montgomery Lawrence, engraving after unknown photographer. NPG D5026

Lawrence was born in 1806 into an Irish family at Matara, Ceylon the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander William Lawrence and the brother of John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence. Educated at Foyle College, Derry and then Addiscombe Military Seminary, in 1823 he joined the Bengal Artillery at the Calcutta suburb of Dum Dum, where Henry Havelock was also stationed about the same time. In the first Burmese War, Lawrence and his battery formed part of the Chittagong column which General Morrison led over the jungle-covered hills of Arakan, until fever decimated them, and Lawrence found himself back in Britain, wasted by a disease that never completely left him. He returned to India in 1829, and was appointed revenue surveyor by Lord William Bentinck at Gorakhpur. He spent some years in camp, during which he married his cousin Honoria Marshall, and surveyed every village in four districts, each larger than Yorkshire. He was then recalled to a brigade by the outbreak of the First Afghan War towards the close of 1838.

As assistant to Sir George Russell Clerk, he now added to his political experience in the management of the district of Ferozepore; and when news of disaster came from Kabul in November 1841 he was sent to Peshawar in order to push up supports for the relief of Sale and the garrison of Jalalabad. He was often unpopular with higher authorities due to his insistence that government should pay most attention to the welfare of the Indian population. He also became the British Resident Minister in Nepal from 1843 December 1 to 1845.

At the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Treaties executed provided for a garrison to be based in Lahore. Lawrence remained there as Agent to the Governor General in charge of political relations of the British government with the Darbar. By the Treaty of Bhairowal (1846), he was made the Resident at Lahore as well as Agent to the Governor-General for the North West Frontier. While here, he governed the area with the help of officers, who were later known as 'Henry Lawrence's Young Men'

Henry Montgomery Lawrence, after photograph by Ahmed Ali Khan, 1857. NPG

In 1856, he was appointed to the newly annexed province of Awadh as Chief Commissioner. In 1857 during the Indian Mutiny, the Siege of Lucknow took place in the province and the British community, including the garrison of some 1700 men, took refuge in the British residency when the siege began on 30 June. Commander Henry Lawrence was one of the first casualties, being wounded by an exploding shell on 2 July and dying two days later. When Lawrence was critically injured, he is supposed to have said to those around him: "Put on my tomb only this; Here lies Henry Lawrence who tried to do his duty." This epitaph appears on his tombstone at the Residency graveyard.

Educational institutions

Henry Lawrence established at three places, at that time all within British India - the Lawrence Military Asylums for the education of the children of British soldiers serving in India. These institutions exist even today as the prestigious Lawrence School, Sanawar (HP, India), Lovedale (TN, India) and Lawrence College, Ghora Gali (Murree, Pakistan). Following the Disruption of 1843, along with Sir James Outram, he supported Reverend Alexander Duff in establishing the Free Church Institution in Kolkata, as a rival institution to the General Assembly's Institution, which was founded by Duff in 1830. These two institutions founded by Duff, would be merged later to form the Scottish Churches College, and following the unification of the Church of Scotland in 1929, the institution would be known as Scottish Church College.

Henry Lawrence Island in the Indian Ocean, at 12N 93E, is named after him, as is the town of Lawrence in New Zealand.

Family life

Lawrence married Honoria Marshall in 1837 but she died in 1854.

High cross Sir Henry Lawrence Memorial in The Residency Lucknow

Works

• Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Runjeet Singh, London, Henry Colburn. (1845) at the Internet Archive
• Essays, Military and Political, Written in India, London, W. H. Allen & Co. (1859) at the Internet Archive

Lawrence also contributed to the Calcutta Review.

See also

• Lawrence Military Asylums
• Lawrence School, Ghora Gali
• Lawrence School, Lovedale
• Lawrence School, Sanawar

References

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Further reading

• (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• Illustrated London News 24 Oct 1863 - p.415 The Lawrence Asylum at Murree
• Sir Henry Lawrence
• 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