Miss Dudley and I

Introduction: The hold that the Anglo-Indian community had over Lawrence School, Lovedale was insidious. Absolutely nothing wrong with being an Anglo-Indian but in Independent India, the education imparted should have been emphatically Indian and this is where the community failed. The Anglo-Indian community had no knowledge of Indian History, Indian religions, Indian culture, Indian cuisine or Indian way of life. This is simply because they were not Indian according to their own beliefs! Several members of the larger Dudley family were for decades part of the school set-up. While it was accepted by some of the Dudley family that they were Anglo-Indians, others went out of their way to emphasise that they were ‘European British Subjects.’

It is appropriate for me to quote in part Nobel winner Naipaul’s musings on Anglo-Indians: this is a mimicry not of England, a real country, but of the fairy-tale land of Anglo-India, of clubs and sahibs and syces and bearers. It is as if an entire society had fallen for the casual confidence of a trickster. Casual because the trickster had gone away, losing interest in his joke but leaving the Anglo-Indians flocking to the churches of Calcutta on a Sunday morning to assert an alien faith more or less abandoned in its country of origin…. (The full quote is in my Page: Anglo-Indians, Naipaul and Jitu Savani

The Anglo-Indian community was indeed a cruel joke played on a hapless people, totally loyal to the British, who having used them, abandoned them. The problem was that my father didn’t want nor would he have bought into an Anglo-Indian education! He paid for and was expecting an Indian education!

Elizabeth Dorothy June Dudley, popularly known by her nickname ‘Bunty’, was herself, a very kind, beautiful and lovely lady who would in modern parlance be described as ‘the girl next-door’. Before joining the teaching staff, she was Head girl in both 1957 and 1958. Virtually immediately after leaving school, she obtained a ‘Diploma in Froebel Training.’ That is all very well but was that a good enough qualification for an allegedly elite boarding school? Here is a bit about the background to that Diploma:

Froebel Training:

‘Born on 21 April 1782 Friedrich Froebel was a German educator who invented the kindergarten. He believed that “play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child’s soul.” According to Froebel, in play children construct their understanding of the world through direct experience with it. His ideas about learning through nature and the importance of play have spread throughout the world.’

In the context of Lawrence School, Lovedale, this was a rubbishy qualification. As soon as one entered the school, a child was subject to ‘military discipline’, including wearing military style uniforms of which a ‘battle jacket’ was an integral part, There was no play in the Froebel context! It was slapping, hair pulling, pinching and other forms of torture meted out by rice-bag Christian converts such as Miss Teressa and her sidekick Rosy Ayah! Classes were largely taken by Miss Nainan, a Syrian Christian and Mrs Enos, an Anglo-Indian.

I set out below a History of the Dudley Family and this can be put in the context of the ‘education’ imparted by the school:

Elizabeth Dorothy June Dudley known to all as Bunty Dudley:

On April 4 1934, a driver by the name of Andrew William Dudley, aged 24 married Gladys D’Costa aged 17. Andrew’s father was unknown (yes, unknown, see marriage certificate). His mother was Wilhelmina Dudley who would then have been 39. It follows that Wilhelmina had Andrew at the age of 14! The father of Wilhelmina was William Craig Johnstone so it is also likely that Wilhelmina, after giving birth to Andrew William married a character called Dudley and hence Andrew William acquired the surname Dudley. Gladys D’Costa was born on 18 August 1916 to Franc and Stella D’Costa in Fraser Town, Bangalore. The father is described as Eurasian.

On 6 February 1935, 10 months after her son Andrew William Dudley got married, Wilhelmina, Andrew’s mother, by then described as a widow aged 40, bus owner, herself got married to James Taylor a 38 year old clerk. Their Marriage Certificate describes them as ‘Both European British Subjects.’

On June 11 1940, Andrew William and Gladys Dudley were blessed with a baby daughter Elizabeth Dorothy June Dudley. This lady went under the name Bunty and she was admitted to Lawrence School on 14 February 1946, aged 5 years and 8 months.

The point here is that there was a huge contingent of Dudleys who studied in the school and Bunty went on to teach in the school. The entire clan may have been nice buy emphatically they were Anglo-Indians and not Indians. Further, the origin of the clan was low grade, low skill and without prospects. I was sad to hear of Bunty’s passing away. Certainly one of her brothers, Noel passed away in Australia and it is safe to assume that most of the family moved to Australia. Bunty certainly wasn’t in any position to give anybody an elite education in a supposedly elite school.

Elizabeth Josephine Flora Dudley

On 26 October 1933, a bachelor, John Dudley aged 26 and described as a General Agent, son of William Frank Dudley (Deceased) married spinster Theodora Joseph, 26, described as a nurse, daughter of Chinna Joseph. The Marriage Certificate states: ‘The bridegroom claims to be a European British Subject.’ Chinna Joseph may well have been what was then regarded as a Luso-Indian, i.e., an Indian pretending to be of Portuguese origin. In those days, the Anglo-Indians were entitled to special privileges and so if there was a doubt as to the origins of this couple, they would not have been afforded such privileges.

In early 1934, John and Theodora were blessed with a baby daughter Elizabeth Josephina Flora. At the time John was described as a motor mechanic.

Shown above is the Birth Certificate of Bunty Dudley (7 from top)

Above is a copy of the Marriage Certificate of Wilhelmina Dudley, widow to James Taylor (Note: both labelled as British Subjects)

Above is the Marriage Certificate of John Dudley and Theodora Joseph, parents of Elizabeth Josephine Dudley (Note: the Bridegroom claims to be a European British Subject.

Above is the gravestone of Andrew William Dudley father of Bunty Dudley

The Dudleys of Kotagiri