Lady Honoria Lawrence

Racist, Fundamentalist Christian and Vile Child Beater

Make no mistake; this dreadful woman is not deserving of the respect and adulation accorded to her; particularly not by Indians. There is absolutely nothing special she did for Indians. Throughout her married life to Sir Henry, right until her death she regarded Indians as a people to be ruled, not as a people with a civilizational History going back millennia, with a culture, religion and education to be admired. She regarded Indians as heathens, completely lacking in hygiene, education or any attributes that would classify them as civilised.

Lady Honoria was one of 16 children of a poor cleric. Forget luxuries, she and her family would have been on subsistence income, unable to enjoy even the basics of life in the United Kingdom. In India though, she enjoyed, rather like her husband, a regal life. Lawrence was himself one if 11 children and, his father being poverty stricken, Lawrence didn’t have any choice but to seek his fortune in India. Indeed Lawrence and his brothers had to start a fund to support their elderly mother when she became a widow.

In summary, the couple, Sir Henry and his wife Honoria didn’t come to India to do Indians any good; they were simple economic migrants but in India, the couple acquired the sort of importance which would never ever have been accorded to them in Britain.

Most of this post has been compiled using the words Lady Honoria herself wrote.

In various paragraphs below, extracts have been taken from The Journals of Honoria Lawrence.

Sir Henry’s mother implored her boys to marry a woman who had a good mother so that she would be a good influence on them and to learn to control their tongues as these had been the rocks on which their father’s career had faltered. Based on her experiences as an army man’s wife, Henry’s mother dissuaded him from joining the British Army and opt instead for the East India Company.

What follows are mainly extracts from ‘The Journals of Honoria Lawrence India Observed 1837-1854 Edited by John Lawrence and Audrey Woodiwiss.

In 1828 While in London recuperating, Henry proposed marriage with Honoria through her cousin Angel Heath. Angel told Henry that as he had no money, no prospects and was in poor health, he must not think of marriage. In 1833 Henry was seconded from his Army post to a congenial civilian job as a revenue officer.

‘So Henry to his work with a fury measuring more fields and riding more miles in the Indian Sun than anyone else, listening to everyone, reconciling village quarrels and imposing a light and equitable tax on every cultivator in his area’.

Note from Jitu Savani: The paragraph above shows that essentially, Henry was a good tax collector. Good tax collector not for the benefit of Indians but for the shareholders of his employers, the East India Company whose raison d’etre was profit! Why should Indians honour such a man?

Below is a copy of the marriage certificate of Henry Lawrence and Honoria Marshall

Extract from her journal October 1845: Cleanliness is a prevailing feature of many Nepaul customs; others are unspeakably filthy. Even the cleanest and most luxurious Native here, or I fancy, anywhere in India has no idea of cleanliness in the clothes that touch their skin, and bed linen is a thing unknown..

She goes on Luckily, the majority of Natives crop or shave their their heads, and in the plains, they bathe where they can. But I dare not even imagine what may dwell within the long flowing locks of the Pathans and the Sikhs. As to the hill people, they never wash, I believe. When they become the happy possessors of any piece of dress, they wear it till it drops off.

Strange that a man who will sweep his house diligently, scrub and polish his hookah and tali (brass dish) till you might almost see your face therein, and wash his hands, does not mind living surrounded by filth and stench, and will contentedly lay his head on a pillow almost rotten with accumulated filth.

Lady Honoria was, of course, being hypocritical as the following YouTube extract will demonstrate what was happening in her own country at the same time:

Hygiene in Victorian Britain from where Lady Honoria came

Note: The word shampoo is a word originating in India and comes from ‘champi’, a head massage and wash!

Other ‘gems’ from Lady Honoria:

• On the ship taking her to India describing a Captain Davenir: He is a Mulatto, a very nigger in this aspect.
• Impressions of men she saw in Madras 0n June 29 1837: These men were very dark, nearly naked and most repulsive looking. Among them all I did not observe one countenance that had a decidedly human expression, all looked like mere animals.
• She even describes the boats she saw there as uncouth compared to the high finish of an English vessel!
• Before I had been five minutes on shore, I had proof of the native indifference to truth.
• One of the first things that strikes a stranger in India is the inefficient way in which the natives labour.
• Talking about servants: I don’t think I shall ever get over the dislike I have to see them lie, stand and sit about the doors or even in the room.
• They seem to have the facility of articulating without shutting their mouths, for while they chatted, there seemed no closing of the awful chasm, a ring of black lips, outside a rim of white teeth, and within this setting a tongue and throat dyed red by the stuff the natives constantly chew called pan..
• On passing a Durga Temple ..I could see within a frightful many armed figure, before which stood a priest, with a hand punkah, fanning the idol. The sight of these horrors, gives great force to the scriptural appeals and remonstrances on the absurdity as well as crime of idolatry.
• On the writing of English by natives:.. the style is universally bad, inflated, full of false metaphor and frequently a caricature of Gibbon’s inversions and circumlocutions
• The native troops wear a uniform like the English and very ugly it looks on them.

See below pupils honouring the founder in uniforms! Ironic!

Below is the Photograph of OL Lt. General Dhiraj Seth, Commander of Republic Day Parade 2023. Lady Honoria Lawrence would have been horrified!

• (when Henry Lawrence formed the Corps of Guides he clothed them in Khaki and gave them comfortable dress. They were the first troops in the world to wear Khaki).
• I hate buying from the natives, they always ask twice or three times as much as the thing is worth, or as they mean to take, and then when they are offered less they hold up their clasped hands saying ‘Hum gureeb admee,’ ‘I’m a poor man,’ looking all the while as sly as possible, and as if they enjoyed having taken in the ‘Ferringhees’ .
• …you took off your own clothing , girded the Pushmina round your loins and put on my cloak to the great astonishment apparently of the niggers, who stared at a sahib so attired.
• … I was astonished at the politeness of the natives, who showed us the way, smoothed the road and shoved on the buggy. I soon learned this was not all disinterested benevolence (They had reached a district where Lawrence had authority).
• The place swarms with fakirs, a most disgusting race, generally stout able-bodied men, daubed with ashes and filth, and more nearly naked than even other Hindoos. They are impudent to the greatest degree with all their dirt and nudity, have a pampered appearance. Nothing human can be more horrible than they look. And we know that they practice every abomination.
• The worship, as far as we saw, was this: a priest with his face all muffled up except the eyes stood before the shrine holding an earthen lamp, or rather cup of oil with many lighted wicks round its edge. This he waived slowly round his head, then turned to the right, then to the left, and bowed to the shrine. We turned away sick at heart. Oh when will the ‘saving health be known among all nations’? (the words in inverted commas are Psalm 67:2)
• This farm, from its sequestered position is particularly useful , as giving a place for locating the converts and keeping them apart from the heathen.
• A Hindu jockey is a droll object. Nothing can be more unbecoming to natives than our costume. The riding cap above the dark face, and the slender limbs clothed in hotter inexpressible and gaiters give the idea of a dressed up monkey.

See below pupils celebrating the founder; ironic!

• It is a curious but sad spectacle, and truly the zeal of these idolaters is a reproach to us. A tax of a rupee is levied by Government on every pilgrim and a lakh of rupees is collected here yearly by this infamous levy. Surely a time will come when it will not be believed that a Christian nation traded in idolatry.
• It struck me that this noble family had a remarkably plebeian look, and we afterwards found that they were mere parvenus. The present Rajah’s father having done service to Government by bringing in a prisoner on whom a price had been set, was rewarded by the title. NOTE FROM JITU SAVANI: THIS WAS THE CASUAL MANNER IN WHICH THE BRITISH APPOINTED RAJAHS! NO WONDER THESE DESPICABLE CHARACTERS REMAINED LOYAL TO THE BRITISH AND WERE A HINDRANCE IN OBTAINING INDEPENDENCE.
• Judging however by the progress any nation has hitherto made, generations must pass away before a healthy principle can be infused into so corrupt a mass as the Indian nations and the inflexible integrity of Europeans is one of the most likely means to improve native character.
• (The half-caste population): They do not have a very high character in general and how should they? Doubtless they inherit many dispositions from their mothers and their education must be worse than defective. They are held in great contempt by the natives and European prejudice is strong against them… and those I have heard speak were emphatic in talking of the natives with contempt
• It is rare to meet a man with a pleasant expression. The mature have generally a cast of cunning or scowl.
• Of house servants: These black forms gliding about with bare feet coming unexpectedly into one’s presence still worry me unspeakably.
• Of the village of Hitounda: The people were very uncivilized looking
• On a visit to Pusputnath: It is pleasant to see any redeeming good in these sanctuaries of heathenism.
• Travelling through Nepal: Then there is the indifference of the people we ask as to the truth or falsehood of what they say.
• On seeing the idol of the Goddess Kali: One I noticed quite unlike anything Hindoo and very like the head of an Egyptian sphinx. Some of the images in Kathmandoo have decidedly African features, especially one hideous one near the Darbar, perfectly black with a grinning mouth, set with white teeth and eyes set off with vermillion. Below is an image of Goddess Kali that caused Lady Honoria to be upset! In the Indian context, there is nothing upsetting about an image that has been part of Indian culture for centuries! However for somebody coming to ‘civilise’ us, it could be upsetting!

• Writing about the Bhutanese: I suppose that unless among the kraals of the Hottentots it would be impossible to find lower specimens of humanity. I never saw countenances so devoid of intelligence… I could not look at the care these hardly human creatures took of their extremities without a bitter thought of the infatuation that left our troops to march bare foot among the snows of Kabul. Note from Jitu: A Kraal is a traditional South African village enclosing both, animals and black villagers referred to derogatively as Hottentots).

See what the Bhutanese actually look like as opposed to what Lady Honoria chose to see.

• Note from Jitu: The great irony here is that the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck’s wife, Queen Jetsun Pema is an Old Lawrencian of Sanawar!
• It is grievous to see so goodly a country denuded of timber but the Sikhs were thorough barbarians in destroying the trees of every country they invaded.

On 25 November 1838, the two most powerful armies on the Indian subcontinent assembled in a grand review at Ferozepore (Where Henry Lawrence was posted) as Ranjit Singh, the Maharajah of the Punjab brought out the Dal Khalsa to march alongside the sepoy troops of the East India Company and the British troops in India. In 1838, he agreed to a treaty with the British viceroy Lord Auckland to restore Shah Shoja to the Afghan throne in Kabul. In pursuance of this agreement, the British army of the Indus entered Afghanistan from the south, while Ranjit Singh’s troops went through the Khyber Pass and took part in the victory parade in Kabul. At about this time, Ranjit Singh gifted a set of 6 miniatures on ivory to Honoria Lawrence:

Here they are ‘blown up’ and one can notice just how beautiful these pieces are

• On Baluchis: They are a wild looking race, long shaggy hair and beards, and their clothes consisting chiefly of pieces of cotton cloth, not cut or sewed but huddled about the head, shoulders and loins, sticking no one could tell how.
• (Major Abbot) He has dug up many specimens of sculpture, from the purely Greek time on to when Buddhist traces are mingled with the Greek, yet still retaining the graceful form, and ending in the hideous many armed deformity of Hinduism. (Did she mean Natraj? Saraswati?). Note: This is the same Abbott after whom the the City of Abbottabad, which sheltered Osama Bin Laden, is named.
• Now these Rajputs claim to be children of the sun and moon, and, knowing very little of the rest of the world, have a vast opinion of their own importance. Being ignorant and idle they lay as great stress on all matters of etiquette as all the courtiers of Lilliput did.
• A band of dancing girls came with the royal party all decked out in tinsel and tissue. They performed their monotonous movements to music about as sweet as what you hear with Punch and Judy.
• I heard lately from Mrs Newton who is in America. She tells me that the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very faithful picture of slavery. I was in hopes it was exaggerated.

Note: Honoria was the first white woman allowed into Nepal and her son Henry Waldemar Lawrence, born 24 January 1845, died 3 June 1908, was the first white baby and first Christian born in Nepal.

A daughter, Letitia Catherine Lawrence, born 16 November 1840 died at just 9 months on 1 August 1841 and another daughter, Honaria Letitia Lawrence born 26 April 1850, died on 18 December 1923.

Child beater

When Honoria’s eldest son Alexander was still a three year old, ‘Mr Steel sent him a little brass cannon. He was of course all agog to fire it off. Hill charged it but I am sorry to say, when it came to the point, our boy hen’d and began to cry, I was very vexed, much worse I was angry and gave him a slap.‘

Extract from Honoria’s journal May 28, 1842 ( Alex, was still 3 years old): ‘Tell me,’ I repeated quietly ‘how often do you think?’ ‘No, I won’t say.’ Frequently he has just gone so far in obstinacy, and yielded when he saw me resolute. I took him to the bathing room and said , ‘Now my boy just recon how many times I have given you water, one two, three, four.’ ‘No, I can’t Mamma.’ Thinking that being flurried he might really forget I repeated for him one, two, three, etc. on to eight bidding him say it after me. ‘No.’ I whipped him with a little slip of whalebone, but with no effect. While smarting he called out ‘Yes, yes Mamma, I will be good, I will recon,’ but the next moment returned the same resolute look , and ‘No, I will not recon.’

After half an hour spent thus, I did not know what to do, feeling I had got into a contest I had to win. As he stood resolutely before me he saw me rest my head on my hand. ‘Mamma are you praying to God?’ ‘Yes, my boy, I am asking Him to make you good.’ He immediately knelt at my knee and said earnestly, ‘Oh God make me good, take away this naughty and make me good.’ I was in hopes the evil was subdued, but the next moment the case seemed as hopeless as ever. I tied his hands behind him and left him for a little while, from five to ten minutes, in the bathing room. But I returned too soon. I had no patience. Half an hour may have done the work. I found Alick as firm as ever, whipped him again and tied him to the bed post. I was glad to see such resolution in his character and afraid to break his spirit. Yet I could not give up. I lifted up my heart in prayer and was composed and calm through all, but I hardly felt such pain when I thought him dying. I think if I had more patience all would have been well, but the moments seemed as long to me as to him. Several times I left the room for a few minutes and returned finding him the same. ‘Will you now recon one, two, three etc’ ? ‘No I will not’. ‘Then I must whip you again.’ ‘Yes, do’ and with a sore heart I again whipped him. Once or twice he said ‘Mamma, I’m afraid of the rod.’

Then I feared I had gone too far. I immediately laid it down saying ‘My boy, I don’t wish to touch the rod again, only count as I bid you.’ ‘I will not.’ Then at other times he would yield. ‘I will Mamma, I will count,’ and then he would begin ‘One, two,’ the evil seeming to rise up again, ‘No, I can’t Mamma.’ ‘Then say it after me.’ ‘No I won’t.’ Sometimes he took the stripes like a spartan, sometimes cried out ‘Dear Mamma, you hurt me, kiss and make better?’ Several time too he said, ‘Just pray to God once more,’ but I thought it dangerous to let him make religion a pretext for disobedience and replied, ‘No, my boy, God will not listen to you while you are obstinate. You must try now and be good, or He will not help you.’ Then he would say ‘Just give me one more whipping and then I will say it.’ This went on for three hours, from four till seven and I was deeply grieved. He seemed to have made up his mind to pass the night tied to the bed post and I could do no more.

As last when the servant announced tea was ready and I was going away, he yielded , and in a different tone said, ‘Yes Mamma, I will be good. I will make you glad.’ ‘Then my boy recon as I bid you.’ He did so, reckoned to eight several times without hesitation. With a glad heart I released him., but then felt puzzled what to do, I longed to take him in my lap , and make up with caresses for all the punishment I had inflicted. But this would have been only self-indulgence, I merely told him I was glad he was good.

Extract from letter written by Honoria Lawrence to Alex, the Lawrences’ eldest son, May 30, 1849, about Lawrence School, Sanawar:

‘Both boys and girls are divided into companies, and the elder ones in charge are called Corporal, Sergeant, and Sergeant Major. These are responsible for the behaviour of their divisions, for reporting anything wrong to the superintendent, for clean hands, faces, and hair. If they hear an improper word spoken to say it must be reported, and various other matters of discipline. Thus, perfect order is kept up.

At night when they turn into the dormitory each Sergeant Major stands before his division, each boy standing at the front of his bed. The word is given ‘jackets off’; off go all the jackets: ‘fold up jackets’; in a moment all are folded and and laid smoothly at the foot of the bed; ‘shoes off’; then a rattle as all the great strong shoes come off and are placed under the beds: ‘kneel down’, all kneel down by the side of his bed, and there is perfect silence for three or four minutes. Then they finish undressing and get into bed. Nearly the same goes on with the girls upstairs. 

The three year old child that Honoria treated so cruelly, became Sir Alexander Hutchinson Lawrence. Note: The Knighthood given to Sir Henry Lawrence during his lifetime died with him. However, Queen Victoria, obviously acting on advice, conferred a Baronetcy to the family in honour of Sir Henry. Such a Baronetcy is hereditary and hence the son Sir Alexander was entitled to use the honorific ‘Sir’. He did enter the Indian Civil Service. In 1862, he married a beautiful and gifted but wayward Irish Girl, Alice Kennedy. In the summer of 1864, after a quarrel with his wife, Alexander left for an expedition ‘into the interior’. About ten days’ march from Simla, Alexander fell thousands of feet to his death. He was riding over a bridge that may have been sabotaged by theft of nails which supported the planks of the bridge over which Alex was riding. He was 26 years old.