I was well settled in England and saw this documentary when it was broadcast. I had joined the School as a 6 year old in 1958 and I still recall the Ooty of those days when it had the appearance of a small English town. In those days Kenya, where I had come from was a British colony and places like Nyeri of the late 50s and early 60s, where my relatives owned small businesses, had a similar atmosphere. Jim Corbett the man-eater tiger hunter and Baden-Powell the founder of the Scout movement, both old India hands, are buried in Nyeri.
That said, those shown remaining in Ooty led genteel lives and I prefer to use the definition of ‘maintaining or striving to maintain the appearance of superior or middle-class social status or respectability’ for that word.
I observed:
- Mrs Herbert was a traditional colonial memsahib and acted the part!
- Quennie Watshire’s ancestor was granted 20,000 acres for his part in suppressing the so called Indian Mutiny, during which Sir Henry Lawrence, through his own incompetence perished. The family made a fortune dealing in teak and coffee.
- Jack Lawrence the planter was continuing to enjoy his life of loneliness and seclusion.
- Alfreda Gay had no choice but to try and survive on her rubbishy paintings.
The 4 characters mentioned above had English accents and Colonel Gill Singh had an authoritative ‘Army’ accent. Mac, about whom there are 6 Pages, despite the subjects he taught, English and English Literature had a Railway Colony accent which was derogatively referred to by our British Colonisers as a Chi Chi accent!
There were still many British customs, viz, the Flower Show, The Hunt (only Jackals available), the Ball at the Ooty Club.
Mac – Wilfred Joseph McMahon and the Ooty Club – Jitu’s perspective
The Ooty Club, then as now, prestigious was where the said Mac would have given his right arm to be a member of but he neither had the money nor the class to be accepted! So Mac, who was absent from school most of the day, seven days a week had to make do with the ‘poor man’s’ Ooty Club, The Lawley Institute. Remember, the Railway Colony where Mac hailed from, had Clubs for the British and Institutions for the Anglo-Indians.
And yet, Mac was regarded as a hero merely because of his alleged Englishness!
At the time this documentary was produced, Mac was ‘obliged’ to leave Lovedale and go to a down market job running a newly created school in Horsley Hills, a sort of ‘poor man’s Nilgiri Hills located in modern day Andhra Pradesh.
The Ooty Club is of Historical Significance in that the timbers used in its construction were brought over from Seringapatanam where the British had defeated and killed Tipu Sultan. Among the officers who laid siege to Seringapatanam was Lt. Col. Alexander Lawrence, father of Sir Henry Lawrence. The Indian Penal Code was drafted by Lord Babington (Macaulay) here and so exclusive was the club that even Churchill was excluded as he owed money to Bangalore Club!
The photographs show Jitu outside and inside the exclusive Ooty club. I stayed at the club for a few days.
The photographs below show Jitu at the Snooker Table said to be one where the game of Snooker was invented. Next to that is Jitu under the portrait of Sir Arthur Lawley, President of the Ootacamund Hunt 1906-1911, in whose honour the Lawley Institute is named and who laid the foundation stone for the Protestant Church in Lawrence School. The third photograph show that H.R. Dunk, who was on the Board of the School for many years was also President of Ooty Club in 1930.
