CHISHOLM AND THE MOVE TO LOVEDALE

 CHISHOLM AND THE MOVE TO LOVEDALE

In an earlier post we have seen how Lt General Sir James Hope Grant, Commander-in Chief of the Madras Army threw his weight behind the choice of Lovedale as the site for the expansion of the Asylum.

Work commenced in 1863 and continued till nearly 1871. It was perhaps in the fitness of things that during the years when the new buildings for The Lawrence Asylum named after Sir Henry were being constructed in Lovedale, the Viceroy of India from 1864-1869 was none other than his younger brother, John, 1^st Baron Lawrence. 

The Girls Asylum was the first to be moved out to Lovedale- on April 24, 1867 while the Boys moved on April 1, 1869. 

The buildings at Lovedale, which we admire to this day, were designed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm, (1840-1915) the well- known architect of his time, who had made a big name for himself at a young age. 

He specialized in the  Indo-Sarcenic style. The characteristic feature of this style was a synthesis of Muslim designs and Indian materials which became very popular in British India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Chisolm chose to design the buildings at Lovedale in the traditional Italiante style, more common in England than in India. It was said, “All his buildings had been constructed in oriental styles with oriental ornamentation. The Lawrence Asylum was realized in the Italianate style fashionable in England”. The rationale for this departure from his usual practice was attributed to the fact that this building was for the children of soldiers of the British Army personnel, the community it served was European and hence its architecture should be as well. The Chapel is designed in the Italian Gothic style, and is a two storied construction forming three sides of a quadrangle a feature of which is the campanile, 130 feet in height.

The chapel referred to here is our present Large Hall. This used to be the Old Chapel till the new one was built much later in 1911, the one near the current Girls School.

A campanile - in architect-speak is a bell tower usually attached to a church. Notice this memorable picture from the 1920s. 

In the segment of Glimpses of a Glorious Past, in the OL Assembly aired in January 2021,  OL Mark Warner, VIN 1969, a leading architect himself, speaks of Chisholm and his contributions to architecture in India.

We are indeed fortunate to have the recollections of George Webster, whom we have met before, when he described the early years at the Asylum at Ootacamund. 

He recalls the actual shift from Stonehouse to Lovedale. Webster writes, “I remember well the day we removed to Lovedale in 1869. The big boys marched the distance, but we, nursery boys travelled in carts. Previous to starting, at about 3 p.m., our tea was served, and on arrival at Lovedale each was given a loaf of bread. We suffered from great thirst after the journey, and eating the bare bread and no provision seemed to have been made of drinking water –at least, I was not aware of any-so fell to drinking the water that trickled in infinitesimal quantities from a barrel"

He went on to say, "The buildings at Lovedale were but half completed and work was being pushed on vigorously. There were over 500 convicts whose services were requisitioned for this purpose. The foundations of the tower were stated to be 15 feet deep and this I quite believe. We had a mangle in use at Stonehouse and the boys always washed their own socks, etc., but large articles of clothing were give out to the ‘dhobi’. This was moved to Lovedale, but continued in disuse in the stone passage till 1871 or so, when it finally disappeared into stores where, I have no doubt, it rests till the present time.

The "convicts" referred to by Webster were the Chinese prisoners from Neduvattam. We will cover them in more detail in a separate blog post. 

We are also informed by Webster: " The even tenor of our lives was, within a few months of our taking possession of the new building was rudely broken in upon by the untimely and greatly lamented death of Mrs. Annie Burrows in 1869, and in her, we nursery boys, lost our best and kindest friend. How shall I ever forget her many little nameless acts of kindness and of love? She was shortly after followed by Mrs. Bliss (the Rev. Principal’s lady), who died at Ootacamund and was buried in St. Stephen’s Church-yard. The big boys were permitted to attend her funeral.”

There were glad tidings too. Thomas Burrows, a teacher married Mary Stack on 4^th of July, 1870, the earliest recorded marriage in Lovedale - being solemnized in the Old Chapel.  

It is evident that much of the construction of the new buildings at Lovedale and the shifting of the asylum from Ootacamund took place under the first Principal’s watch. Rev. Whitehouse’s successor was Rev. T. Bliss, who managed the asylum from 1868 to 1871. 

Taking the liberty of interjecting some humour into what otherwise makes heavy reading, one might say, tongue firmly in cheek, that the occupants of The Lawrence Asylum on shifting to the beautiful new buildings and the much larger campus in Lovedale must have felt they had moved from Stonehouse through Whitehouse to Bliss!

We would love to hear your comments!! 

EARLY YEARS AT THE LAWRENCE ASYLUM

 EARLY YEARS AT THE LAWRENCE ASYLUM 

September 6, 1858 was when The Lawrence Asylum was formally established in Ootacamund, in the picturesque Nilgiri Hills. 

Paul Porter, aged 12, son of Private Porter of the HAM Regiment was the very first pupil. He was admitted on October 1, 1858. The first girl was Isabella Wallace, the 11 year old daughter of Sergeant Major John Prince Wallace of the 2nd Light Cavalry, admitted in January 1860. 

 The Lawrence Asylum was initially located in a rented house called "Lark Hill" which had 12 boys and a Superintendent. In May 1859, the strength had grown to 40 boys and they moved to Stonehouse. As more girls joined, separate premises for the Female Asylum was taken at Lower Norwood, in June 1860.

 In the initial years, we surmise it was administered by the Secretary of the Committee, Mr E W Bird.  The first Principal was appointed in 1862: the Rev. T. Whitehouse, MA (Cantab). He was to be followed as Principal and Secretary of the school by many ordained priests of the Church of England all the way upto 1946.

As far as getting there was concerned, the road hadn't reached Ooty yet, and of course the railway was even further away. Horses were much in use. Horse-drawn and bullock carts ferried people and material. 

No one can tell the story of what it was to be a student of the Asylum better than someone who was actually there. A boy called George Andrew Webster was admitted on March 13, 1869 and left the Ootacamund Lawrence Asylum in 1880.

Webster wrote this article years later ( The Lawrencian, 1912) : “I venture to hope that readers of ‘The Lawrencian’ will find a good deal to interest them in this historical account of happening in school a decade after its foundation. I am descended from a family of soldiers. My father and mother married on equal terms, that is to say, he was a widower and she a widow, and each brought a son into the family. They had not a superabundance of this world’s goods, though there were expectations on both sides. I was born in the Nilgiris.” 

“….later in the day when a bullock coach drew up in the square it became apparent that we were on a journey bent-and so it proved- and that journey is one I shall never forget, because it landed my brother William and myself in the Lawrence Asylum at Stonehouse (Ootacamund). 

How was life for the inmates of this institution? 

Webster wrote 32 years after he left The Lawrence Asylum. "In those days we boys were called up at 05.30 a.m. and compelled willy-nilly to have a cold water bath every day, except Saturday when we bathed at 02:00 p.m. in the upper school boys’ cistern. I looked upon this as a terrible ordeal and no excuse was wanting to avoid it. I was either one of the detention class boys or had a cough or some thing like it, but the Sargeant- Major would have none of it. He generally ordered a big boy to hoist me on his shoulders and dip me, and when I was again above water I used to be gasping for breath. Fortunately, there was no society for preventing cruelty to children in those days.

The day following my admission I was ordered to attend the Quarter – Master’s Stores and, pursuant to order, I attended at 3.00 p.m., when that worthy official supplied me with two pairs of strap-buckle boots and a leather belt. He stamped a number on each of these articles and informed me that my number was 29. He then queried “What is your number?” and I answered “29,” whereupon he administered such a resounding box on my ear as to cause the organ to ring noon. To say I was surprised is putting it mildly. “Say 29, sir,” say he, and I replied “29, sir.” He then admonished me not to forget it. 

The nursery boys slept in a small room at the back of the aforesaid building, while the front rooms were used for dining and school purposes by upper and lower schools. The stores and upper school boys’ bed-rooms were located in a long, low building at the top of the hill and known as ‘Stonehouse’. 

The big boys were not without a sense of humour. One of them would ask, “I say, do you want to see London?” and you enquired “What good will it do?” he would say, “Oh! It’s a large place quite full of people and you would see the Queen of England and a lot of other things”. You would then signify your willingness to see this grand place, when that individual would place one hand of his under your chin and the other behind your head and lift you clean off the ground. You were then introduced to other boys as one who had seen London.

Life at Stonehouse was happy existence. We, boys, were allowed to ramble anywhere we pleased-only being expected to be present at meal time.”

Remember, "The Lawrencian" was first published in 1911, that is 110 years ago!