Child Officers and Delusions of Importance.

This Page is about the farcical system of appointing prefects/guard commanders/house captains/monitors and other nonsensical aspects of imposing, or more accurately trying to impose ‘order’ in the institution. Let us call these characters ‘officers’. Certainly the prefects and guard commanders were given military style uniforms different to the ‘hoi polloi’ or common pupils who held no ‘ranks’. The officers were even made to feel more important than those they were in charge of! In reality, most, but by no means all, were dunderheads who, when dealing with life in the real world, came to realise that their lack of academic achievement rendered their stints as ‘officers’ totally useless! A number of them disappeared into the ether as absolute nobodies and others couldn’t accept the loss of status in the real world, some even took to alcoholism with many even perishing as a result.

Reality is that many such ‘officers’ particularly those chosen by Mac were chosen for their thuggery! It was also a neat way to abrogate responsibility and shift control and care of the children away from the adults who were meant to be in charge, and indeed paid to be in charge. In the process, life was made hell for those the ‘officers’ chose to make life hell for as there was no recourse!

Such a practice, i.e., the abandoning of young children to the control of prefects and the resulting abrogation of responsibility, was probably unique to the Lawrence Schools. Anglo-Indian Wilfred Joseph McMahon, newly out of his Railway Colony, the Mac mentioned in the foregoing paragraph was one master who perfected this art. Being a product of a Railway Colony, where there was mutual resentment between the Anglo-Indians and ordinary Indians, he couldn’t care less about the hell he was putting his wards through; after all, it benefitted him that ‘friendly fire’ among the Indians enabled him to spend most of his time, yes, most of his time away from, rather than within the school. There was not a single day throughout the year, and this included weekends and holidays, when Mac didn’t abandon his wards into the hands of prefects.

The characters Mac chose were no role models, guides or mentors, nor were they liaison points between pupils and teachers; they were certainly not ones younger pupils could relate to. Most certainly, they were not ones who led by example! Whereas they should have been setting the standard for behaviour, attitude, and work ethic, reality was that they were lowering the few standards that did exist! They were there to impose order with a Nelsonian blind eye turned by the likes of Mac to the methods used. As a perk of the job they got away with theft, violence and other acts of bullying. The quid pro quo for Mac was that he could enjoy and lead his own life away from the House he was supposed to be a master of and paid to be master of!

The desire on the part of those responsible for the wellbeing of children to delegate that responsibility was overwhelming and not just confined to Mac. In Prep School, outside of teaching time, children were put into the care of servants who had no knowledge of child care and were in turn only too keen to put young children into the care of older children. Disastrous consequences followed.

I have set out details of the bullying and torture practiced by the children on children in various Pages within this blog but here I set out the background from Historical records, including reports sent by the school to the British Army in the United Kingdom and which I have examined in person. See Page School Reports sent to British Army.

The practice of abandoning children to the custody and care of other children started with Lady Honoria the vile wife of Sir Henry, as evidenced by the following extract from her own writing:

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 military etiquette followed by at the ASYLUMS in Lady Honoria’s time was understandable because not only were the orphans taken in by Mr and Mrs Lawrence from military barracks, but also the fact that Sir Henry’s own ‘education’ was at Addiscombe, a military seminary which he joined at age 14 and graduated aged 16 as a Second Lieutenant.

Besides, there were no adult European staff available and certainly not trained adult staff to take on responsibilities at the asylum. Indian staff were certainly not allowed. Remember too that in those days, White British could even murder Indians and only be tried by fellow Whites who ensured they got away scott-free!

One could understand such a practice when the institutions were asylums and the children were orphans of low ranking East India Company and/or British soldiers. Neither the East India Company nor the British Colonial rulers would pay to repatriate such orphans back to Britain so had it not been for the asylums, such orphans would have been attached to the regiment their fathers served and would ultimately become the victims of debauchery as ordinary low level serving soldiers wouldn’t consider it their responsibility to look after them.

Both, the East India Company and the British Government were pitiless when it came to spending money on British orphans and in any case even if they had been repatriated, such children would have been placed in workhouses where the exploitation was worse.

One could even understand the practice continuing when the Lawrence Schools were accorded the status ‘Military Schools’ by the British Sovereign King George V in 1920, even though the schools were churning out low skill low prospect pupils into the adult world and generally not military men albeit many did volunteer and others were conscripted. There were no pupils produced who were capable of being King’s Commissioned officers.

That said, post Independence, the schools were delusional in thinking they were producing potential military men merely because elaborate military style parades, for which hours of practice were devoted, were held every year to honour the Founder who was nothing more than a despicable tax-extorter!

When parents were paying good, hard-earned money to send their children to Lawrence School, they had in mind careers for their children in the fields of business, medicine, engineering, law, aviation and other similar professions. Very few had military careers in mind for their children. Those few that did should have realised that NCC training was more than sufficient.

In the photograph above, you will see Mohan Nadar. Whilst I didn’t know the other five, I did get to know Mohan who is the exception that proves the rule as far as prefects are concerned. Far bigger than other boys, he was a good boxer and so didn’t need to prove his authority by beating and torture. He was able to exercise authority through kindness. After school he had a highly successful career in the medical filed. In fact, Mac, about whom there are many Pages died in Mohan’s nursing home where Mohan took care of him until his last breath and gave Mac the dignity that he wouldn’t have got elsewhere.

Here are some choice quotes to enable one to understand the system that obtained in relation to prefects:

The running of the School out of class hours is now practically entirely in the hands of the Prefects who have shouldered their responsibilities admirably.  Words of the Rev R W Simpson, M Sc,  D Phil (Oxon), FRES who took charge as the Principal in 1933.

From report for year ending 31.3.1935

The annoyances due to petty pilfering and continuous lying etc. which I experienced during my first year have now entirely ceased owing to the initiative and disciplinary actions of the prefects.

Note from Jitu: What disciplinary actions? Severe beatings as happened in subsequent years? Or major thefts by the likes of vice head boy Kalli Jacob who was the biggest thief. See Page Mac- Wilfred Joseph McMahon – The Stalwart Who Never Was 5B

Extract from Prospectus of 1965: The School operates a House system through House Masters/Mistresses and Prefects and believes in delegating responsibility to children.

Extract from report submitted to the British Army in Britain for the year ending 31.3.1939

For four years the running of the house was entirely in the hands of the prefects, who were specifically kept on in school until the age of 20 or 21 for this purpose.

Just take in the above: The school didn’t have any reputation for academic achievement at all. Pupils left with no more than basic literacy if that! So boys kept on 4 and 5 years after they should have left, with no training in child care and living with children even 15 years younger would have put the fear of God into youngsters. Further, the 20 and 21 year olds, not required to study would have plenty of spare time to plot the torture of helpless youngsters! The tradition of bullying exploded in subsequent years such that characters like Leonard Kennedy, C. Rajan, N. Vishwanath, Kali Jacob, John Koshy etc. found themselves in a bully’s paradise!

Giving so much power to such characters was not only disastrous for the other pupils but gave delusions of importance which simply couldn’t be sustained on leaving school. Many became deracinated nobodies and couldn’t handle that. I give the following examples of boys (and a girl) known to me:

Sheila Madan, Head Girl 1960. In complete contrast to her siblings this once lovely lady (whose father Mr Justice Madan was a friend of my father) died after what can best be described as a debauched life and in very reduced circumstances. See below.

Palniswamy, Prefect in 1962, an accomplished athlete became an alcoholic and died at a young age.

(No photo available)

Joseph Vallikapen Head boy of 1965 a thoroughly nice person to me personally, became an alcoholic and died at a young age.See below

Abraham Varghese Prefect in 1966 and self appointed prefect to juniors in 1962 died as a result of alcoholism on 28 December 2023. See below

Madan Talreja a.k.a. Sunny a.k.a Atom Head boy in 1967 became an alcoholic, fathered several children, became a ‘pastor’ and died at a young age. See below

Drona Venkatadri, a Supernumerary Officer at Parade (and hence entitled to ‘Officer’s Uniform) Guard Commander in 1968 became an alcoholic and died at a young age. See below

D Anil Kumar Prefect in 1969 became an alcoholic and died at a young age. See below

Doraiswamy Prefect in 1969 became an alcoholic and died at a young age. See below.

The photograph below is extracted from the Nilgiri House 1969 photo and shows Prefect Doraiswamy (left) Housemaster Mac (centre) and Prefect D. Anil Kumar. All three died alcoholics!

You have seen the bogus child officers. Now look at the photo below of the counterparts at Mayo College. As far back as 1931 they were dressed as INDIANS!