The purpose of this post is to drive home the message that the school was heavily influenced by the Railways Connection. The Railways were an emphatically Anglo-Indian institution, not British, not Indian but definitely Anglo-Indian.
This beautiful, kind lady unusually for an Anglo-Indian was one in whose class us little boys were allowed to be little boys. I do recall the stories she read to us and asked questions about including Jack and the Beanstalk. Of course, at that time a little boy wouldn’t know that what was being taught had a distinctly Anglo-Indian tilt. Dorcas Stokoe or for that matter none of the Anglo-Indians and none of the Christians would have heard of Panchtantra or similar Indian tales to be used as a learning tool. This lovely lady could control her class through sheer kindness. Look at the two reports on me that I have appended and note that dramatic improvement in performance thanks to her being my teacher. Note also that she got the spelling of my name, ‘Jitendra’ right; unlike others such a Mrs Fowles who assumed that all Indians would use the alphabet ‘h’ in their names like South Indians, thus Mrs Fowles and others spelt my name ‘Jithendra’.
Towards the end of our Class 2 year, she gave each one of the little boys in our class 6 boiled sweets to celebrate her marriage. This was an act of kindness that absolutely no other teacher would have considered! She took on a forlorn look and that is the last I remember of her. I wondered why and now more than 6 decades later I can make an educated guess. Aged 27 she married an Anglo-Indian doctor, aged 37 and based in Saudi Arabia, the son of an Anglo-Indian Engine Driver from Igatpuri, a well known Railway Colony town.
It is painfully obvious now that she was unhappy at the prospect of leaving behind her loving family in Kolar Gold Fields and joining her husband, 10 years her senior, in an alien land, completely out of her comfort zone. What though could an Anglo-Indian do if her community was determined to practice endogamy (i.e., marrying within the community).
Although very kind and beautiful, Dorcus Stokoe was distinctly Anglo-Indian. The Kolar Gold Fields community that she originated from was closely related to the Railways Anglo-Indian community. Indeed, Dorcas Stokoe went on to marry a Railway Colony origin Anglo-Indian doctor. As such her influence on her wards would be distinctly Anglo-Indian which was neither British nor Indian.
Dorcas Stokoe would have made a loving and beautiful wife for any Indian; if only her community accepted that with Independence, times had changed and that the British had abandoned them!
- On 30 August 1893 Oliver Ellis, 26, a guard in the Great Indian Peninsular Railway married Emilia Henrietta Cole aged 24 in Khandwa.
- On 20 April 1899, Oliver Ellis, still a guard in Great India Peninsular Railway and Emilia Henrietta Ellis were blessed with a baby girl, Olive
- On 19 December 1917 Alfred Lovell Smith a fireman (railways) aged 25 married Olive Hope Ellis, aged 18.
- On 22 September 1921 Alfred Lovell Smith now an Engine Driver and Olive Hope both residents of Igatpuri were blessed with a baby boy Cecil Lovell Percival Smith
- On 7 May 1924 Joseph Henry Stokoe, 27, a Banksman at Nandidoor Mine, married Mercy Margaret Edwards, 18, a student and resident of Oregum Mine.
- On 15 October 1931, Joseph Henry Stokoe, now a ‘jumps chargeman’ at Nandidoor Mine within Kolar Goldfields, and his wife Mercy Margaret were blessed with a baby girl, Dorcas Queenie.
- On November 12 1959, Cecil Lovell Percival Smith a doctor aged 37 from Dahram, Saudi Arabia, married 27 year old Dorcas Queenie Stokoe, a teacher from Lovedale.
Above is the Birth Certificate of Cecil Percival Lovell Smith
