Let me make it clear that I actually met this lady on 1 October 2024 (see photo below) when she had already turned 103. We had a long, pleasant conversation, old times were recalled with fondness and she was thoroughly happy. Absolutely nothing negative was said. I was fully aware of my personal responsibility to pay due deference to her age and the blissful life she was leading. I had a couple of years earlier also spoken to her son Marcel on the phone. Although what I have to say will be upsetting to most, remember, these are my musings and people are free to disagree and reject what I have to say.
I am well aware that this post will upset many people; that is fine by me. I would be desecrating the memory of my own parents if I claim that the colossal sums they spent on sending me from far away Kenya to Lawrence School Lovedale was good value for money and that I spent a blissful childhood in the loving care of Indian teachers instilling in me Indian values. To start with, there was no blissful childhood and while there were some Indian teachers, in Prep School certainly, the overwhelming ‘teaching’ was by Anglo-Indian Mrs Enos with some input from Anglo-Indians Barbara Prince, Dorcas Stokoe, Bunty Dudley and Syrian Christian Miss Nainan! Far from being good value for money, it was a colossal waste! My father wasn’t aware that he was sending me to an Anglo-Indian institution that had not adapted to the ways of Independent India.
Let me repeat what I have written in my post titled ‘From Baby Krishna to Butchadkhana’:
‘One of the cruellest people I came across as a 6 year old was Mrs Valerie Enos. Valerie was a name she adopted, her real name was Mary Hilda Enos as the documentary evidence I have attached in my Page under the Section Teachers and Ancillary Staff ‘The Enos Phenomenon’ will show. Various honours have been accorded by Old Lawrencians to this dreadful woman as they forget her cruelty and remember only matters such as her reading nonsense like ‘Child of Grace’. She has, as I write this page reached the age of 103. Reaching the age of 103 does not absolve her of the cruelty she heaped on helpless children far away from loving homes and without any loved one to pour their hearts out to! This woman, very much a part of the local Anglo-Indian community was cocooned from what was happening in India and obviously felt it was her right to be nasty to ordinary native Indians even though in reality she was much darker skinned than the rest of us. She had joined the school in 1948 as an unqualified teacher in what was then a school that had very few Indians, at a time when the objective of the school was to churn out tradesmen. Her Anglo-Indian husband Mr Valentine Enos was part of the band, called Hot Shots that provided the music for the Founder’s dance in 1967. Mr Enos played trumpet and the band, which was entirely Anglo-Indian, churned out Western hit tunes from the 30s!’
Mrs Enos should have been booted out when the great churn occurred in the early 50s but somehow she slipped through the net. I recall one episode of this woman’s cruelty as if it happened yesterday. A classmate, a little boy called Venkatramani couldn’t answer a question posed to him. He was made to stand up and, with a wooden foot-ruler Enos kept whacking the calves of his legs until the ruler broke. Venkat knew it was only a question of time before she returned with a new ruler and, terrified at the prospect of further lashings, lost control of his bladder and wet himself. The piss kept flowing while Venkat went into uncontrollable spurts of shivering.
Look at the photos above. Imagine a Gujarati boy, not speaking a word of English being shouted at, screamed at and being severely beaten by a woman wearing a jacket; prior to that I had never ever come across a woman wearing a jacket. Another favourite pastime of this woman was to humiliate little boys by making them kneel and apologise for any perceived wrong they had allegedly done.
Who was this Mrs Enos and how on Earth did she get such a powerful job in Independent India?
You will see in the list marked The Enos Nilgiri Hills Connection below people with the surname Enos. For our purposes the important name is Joachim, in the Father’s First Name(s) Column below, for he was the father-in-law of our Mrs Enos. You will see his name listed 4 times in the column ‘Father’s name’. What you will not see is the name of Valentine under the column Last Name. The simple explanation is that Valentine Enos is listed in various places as Valentine Sebastian with the surname Gregory Enos.
Mary Hilda Cunningham was born on 28 August 1921 to Albert and Mary Cunningham. She was born or certainly baptised in Cannanore, now known as Kannur. Although baptised in Cannanore, Mary Hilda’s parents Albert and Mary’s abode is listed as Brooklands, Coonoor. Albert is listed as being an ‘Anglo-Indian Superintendent’. In those days such police officer posts were open only to Anglo-Indians. Valentine Sebastian Gregory Enos was born in in 1917 probably in Ooty like the other children of Joachim listed.
At some stage, Valentine Sebastian Gregory Enos joined the Nilgiri Malabar Rifles, see description below
Such Auxiliary Forces were not open to Indians and were set up all over India to protect the European Community and not have a repetition of the so called Mutiny when several European civilians were killed. As well as from the Nilgiris, other Anglo-Indians joined from the Malabar region which included Cannanore.
The couple got married in Coonoor in 1949, a year after Mary Hilda joined Lawrence School as a teacher. Just what she was equipped to teach is unclear as she had no qualifications. The Auxiliary Forces that were loyal to our British Colonial rulers were done away with so Valentine joined St Joseph’s school Coonoor as the Steward (he referred to the job as ‘running the canteen’).
This post demonstrates that this couple were born into the Anglo-Indian community, grew up in the Anglo-Indian community, had fathers with jobs open only to Anglo-Indians and spent their lives within the Anglo-Indian community and that too within the Nilgiri Hills. As such, Mrs Enos certainly had no knowledge of Indian History, Indian Culture, Indian Religion or Indian way of life. Mrs. Enos certainly only ever wore Western clothes. However, that did not stop her thriving in Lawrence School, Lovedale which she had joined in 1948, two years before legendary Headmaster K.I. Thomas.
Alas, there was nobody to supervise her and thus she worked on an ad hoc basis. If a little Gujarati Hindu boy, aged 6 from far away Kenya, who didn’t know a word of English was asked to repeat ‘C A T Cat’ and didn’t get it right, a ruler would soon get the job done. True, she wasn’t the only one but that is the experience that I and perhaps many others have in mind whenever her name is mentioned.
This post also demonstrates why I am not in anyway, shape or form appreciative of the ‘education’ being imparted to me at Lawrence School, Lovedale.
The Enos Nilgiri Hills Connection
Birth Certificate of Gasparis, one of Joachim’s several children.
Record showing Mary Hilda Enos nee Cunningham was born in Cannanore
Marriage Certificate of Mary Hilda Cunningham to Valentine Sebastian Gregory Enos. Valentine’s father is shown as Joachim.
Here is an interesting article about Mrs Enos.
As can be seen, there is nothing but praise for Mrs Enos. My experience of this woman however, is one filled with horror. Over the years, the woman’s story has been embellished to make her appear a kind caring woman all her life. This would be far from the truth! Here is an example of the embellishment.
In the article below she is described as the daughter of a planter, Victor A Cunningham. Rubbish! Her birth certificate shows she was the daughter of Albert Cunningham (not Victor) an Anglo-Indian Superintendent. This refers to a police rank. Such jobs were not open to Indians, only Anglo-Indians and the job of such police personnel was to protect the English community in case of an event such as the so called ‘mutiny’. A copy of a page from the Nilgiri Directory shows only one Cunningham with the initials FC as being a planter. In those days, Anglo-Indians were simply not wealthy enough to be planters! In any case, there were severe restrictions on Anglo-Indians owning property right from the time of Cornwallis!
The Coonoor Ensemble – Music Director Ivan Enos, nephew of Mary Hilda Enos. In the video above, note, from 51.59 on, the song ‘Lipstick on your collar’ taught to me as a 6 year old at assembly! Although there is a mixture of ethnicities in the ensemble, the overall flavour is exactly what one would expect from an all-Anglo-Indian music group; no change since I first had the experience in 1958!
The Damascene Conversion
Mrs Enos had two children in the school; son Marcel and daughter Tina. Marcel is a thoroughly decent, all Indian gentleman. His wife is Anita, his son-in-law Krishna and he has two daughters Vaishali and Vanisha. Krishna and Vaishali have settled in Bishop’s Stotford, UK while Vanisha is in Bangalore. You cannot get more Indian than the names Anita, Krishna, Vaishali and Vanisha! Proof positive if proof were needed that those Anglo-Indians who adapted to Independent India and left the cloud-cuckoo land of a make-belief Anglo-India as being a separate, elite nation are a welcome and valuable part of society.
Your blog was a revelation. Thank you. The most miserable years of my life were here. The teachers post the Anglos continued in their vein belittling children and encouraging bullying.