John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence
John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, GCB GCSI PC (4 March 1811 – 27 June 1879), known as Sir John Lawrence, Bt., between 1858 and 1869, was a prominent British Imperial statesman and served as the Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869.
For other people named John Lawrence, see John Lawrence (disambiguation).
The Lord Lawrence
Sir William Denison
As Acting Viceroy and Governor-General
Office created
The Marquess of Dalhousie
The Earl Canning
Office created
Office abolished
4 March 1811
Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire, England
27 June 1879 (aged 68)
London, United Kingdom
Early life[edit]
Lawrence was born in Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire.[1] He was the youngest son born into an Ulster-Scots family, his mother, Letitia Knox, being from County Donegal while his father was from Coleraine in County Londonderry. Lawrence spent his early years in Derry, a city in the Province of Ulster in the northern part of Ireland, and was educated at Foyle College and Wraxhall School in Bath.[2] His father had served in India as a soldier in the British Army and his elder brothers included Sir George Lawrence and Sir Henry Lawrence.
At the age of sixteen, despite wishing for a military career like his brothers, his father enrolled him at the East India Company College, Haileybury, believing a career as a civil servant offered better prospects.[3] He attended Haileybury for two years, where by his own admission he was neither very idle nor very industrious, yet he won prizes in history, political economy and Bengali.[3]
Passage to India[edit]
Lawrence entered the Bengal Civil Service and in September 1829 he set sail for India with his brother Henry. On arrival he settled at Fort William where he was expected to pass examinations in local vernacular.[3] Having successfully mastered Persian and Urdu, Lawrence's first job was as a magistrate and tax collector in Delhi.[4] After four years in Delhi he was transferred to Panipat and two years hence was placed in charge of Gurgaon district.[3]
In 1837, Lawrence was made a settlement officer at Etawah. Whilst doing the role he caught jungle fever and was close to death. He spent three months in Calcutta to convalesce but having failed to recover he returned to England in 1840. The following year, whilst in County Donegal he met and married his wife Harriette in August 1841.[2] The couple then spent six months travelling Europe until news from the First Anglo-Afghan War led to them returning to England, and back to India in the autumn of 1842.[3]
On his return to India, Lawrence was appointed a Civil and Sessions Judge in Delhi, and given responsibility over Karnal.[3] During the First Anglo-Sikh War between 1845 and 1846, Sir Henry Hardinge sent orders for Lawrence to assist the armed forces. He played a key role ahead of the Battle of Sobraon, ensuring supplies and guns were collected and transferred to the battle.[3]
Punjab[edit]
Jullundur and the Hill States[edit]
At the conclusion of the First Anglo-Sikh War, Sir Henry Hardinge appointed Lawrence to govern the newly annexed Jullundur district and Hill-States regions of the Punjab.[4] In that role he was known for his administrative reforms, for subduing the hill tribes, and for his attempts to end the custom of suttee.[3] He attempted to tackle the issue of female infanticide, successfully threatening the Bedi's with confiscation of their lands if they didn't give up the practice.[3] His assistant Robert Cust described Lawrence's interviews with native land-holders as follows:[3]
Aftermath of Rebellion[edit]
In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, the British perpetrated acts of vengeance, including summary executions.[6] In February 1858 Delhi became part of the Punjab, and Lawrence took steps to check the acts of vengeance.[6] That same month he wrote to Lord Canning urging him to permit sepoys who had not taken part in the mutiny to return home, and to grant an amnesty for those who did not murder anyone and had given up their arms.[3]
Calls were made to raze Delhi to the ground, and dismantle the Jama Masjid, however Lawrence resisted such calls stating holy places should be spared.[3] Popular opinion within British society was shaped by partisan reports of atrocities committed by the rebels and demanded the most severe retribution on the alleged culprits, an opinion which was resisted by Lord Canning and Lawrence.[3] As many as 800,000 Indians and possibly more, both in the rebellion (150,000 dead) and in famines and epidemics of disease (650,000 dead) in its wake, by comparison of 1857 population estimates with the Indian Census of 1871.[7] About 6,000 British occupiers or family members were killed.[7]
In 1858, the Punjab was made a Lieutenant Governorship which resulted in an increase in staff and other privileges. In February 1859, Lawrence handed over power to Robert Montgomery and set sail for England. For his service in the mutiny he was created a baronet, granted a GCB, made a Privy Councillor and received an annual pension from the East India Company of £2,000.[8] On arrival in England he was greeted with a lavish ceremony at Guildhall and afforded an audience with Queen Victoria.[3] He also took up a role with the Council of India based at Whitehall.[3]
Additionally he received the freedoms of the cities of London (1858) and Glasgow (1860), the freedom of the Worshipful Company of Grocers (1859) and honorary doctorates of civil law from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (1859).[9]
Lawrence married Harriette Catherine, daughter of The Reverend Richard Hamilton, in 1841.[2] They had four sons and six daughters:[18][19]
Lady Lawrence died in 1917.
Legacy[edit]
A boarding house at the East India Company College (today Haileybury and Imperial Service College) and a "house" at Foyle College was subsequently named after him. Lawrence is also a Senior Wing House at St Paul's School, Darjeeling, in India, where all the Senior Wing Houses are named after colonial-era civil service and military figures.
A statue of him stands at Foyle and Londonderry College (having been, originally, erected in Lahore). The statue, by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, once showed Lawrence with a pen in one hand and a sword in the other, along with the caption "By which will you be governed?". The pen and sword were used to illustrate his versatility as an administrator and a soldier. Vandals have since damaged the sword. Another statue of Lawrence stands in Waterloo Place in central London. A portion of the inscription on the base of the statue originally read "Ruler of the Punjab," but the word "Punjab" has been defaced and rendered illegible by vandals.