WHAT'S IN A NAME? THE MANY SIR HENRYS

 WHAT'S IN A NAME? THE MANY SIR HENRYS  

Like trends in fashion for clothes, there seem to be trends in names too! In the old days, many Hindu men and women in India were given the names of Gods and Goddesses. Virtually, every family had a Saraswathi or a Lakshmi, a Ram or a Lakshman!   These days a name is not considered au courant unless it starts with the alphabet A. Names like Aryaan, Ayushmaan, Aadhish, and Aadanya abound from Amritsar to Alappuzha! One parent smugly told me that a child gets more attention in class with a name starting with A. Much more, she pointed out, than one whose name starts with Y who probably languishes in the last row. 

Be that as it may, for every person his or her name is important. William Shakespeare, The Bard of Avon, summed it up with his " What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet” in Romeo and Juliet.

At one time. Henry was an immensely popular name in England. Its roots can be traced back to meaning "the ruler of the home" in old Frankish and Common Germanic. Indeed, there were as many as eight Kings of Britain by that name, the last of whom King Henry VIII ruled in the 16th century.

More relevant to us Old Lawrencians is that our school was named in the memory of a Henry : Major General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, KCB (1806-1857). 

 Picture Courtesy: OL Farrokh Chothia

Squeezing in a bit of  history, it is interesting to note that from 1857 till date,  4 out 7 Barons Lawrence of Lucknow were named Henry-  obviously  after him. 

To honour Sir Henry, a Baronetcy was created after his death in 1857. Please note that there are seven Baronetcies created after persons called Lawrence! Our interest is in the Lawrence of Lucknow baronetcy. The last word on the British aristocracy is Debrett's as readers of P G Wodehouse would know so well.

Sir Henry's eldest son, Sir Alexander Hutchinson Lawrence (1838-1864) was created 1^st Baron Lawrence of Lucknow.

In 1864, he was succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Hayes Lawrence who became the 2nd Baron. He lived till 1898 but as he did not have any male heir, on his demise, the Baronetcy passed on to his uncle Sir Henry Waldemar Lawrence (1845-1908) who became the 3^rd Baron Lawrence.

 

With the demise of Sir Henry Waldemar Lawrence in 1908, the title passed on to his son, Sir Alexander Waldemar Lawrence (1874 to 1939) who became the 4^th Baron Lawrence.

 

Sir Alexander, in turn, was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Henry Eustace Waldemar  Lawrence (1905-1967) as the 5^th Baron Lawrence. This Sir Henry was not married so on his demise in 1967, his younger brother, Sir John Waldemar Lawrence (1907-1999) became the 6^th Baron Lawrence.

 

The 6^th Baron did not have any son while his younger brother George Alexander Lawrence (1910-1999) did. The title therefore passed to- the current Sir Henry-  his nephew Sir Henry Peter Lawrence (b. 1952) who became the 7^th Baron Lawrence of Lucknow! 

Coming back to names, in the United States, naming the son after the father is fairly common as exemplified by John F Kennedy Jr. When the child has the same name as his father and grandfather he becomes XYZ III as in John D Rockefeller III. I read that in the United States there is no law against naming any number of children with the same name- it causes confusion but is not illegal.

The famous boxer, George Edward "Big George" Foreman  named all five of his sons George Edward Foreman.  Not satisfied with this, one of his daughters was named Georgetta!  In apparently another variation of the naming convention, his eldest son became George Jr, and the next few- George Edward Foreman III, IV, V, and VI respectively!!!

In his case, George is his given name or Christian name and Foreman is his surname or family name. Amongst the Christians in Kerala, I have come across boys having the same Christian name and surname! My friend, "Geech" Koshy Koshy, NIL, Class of 1965 springs to mind.  In my life time, I have also come across  Mammen C Mammen, George K George. and Ittiyera G Ittiyera -names in the Jerome K Jerome mode. There must be some explanation for this phenomenon. This blog post by Rocksea says names are repeated due to a convention where the eldest son/daughter is named after the paternal grandfather/grandmother, the second child is named after the maternal grandfather/grandmother and so on. The authors of this blog post say that only around 25 names for males and 10 for girls are in common use.

As the English writer Charles Caleb Colton wrote long ago, "The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthy of it." 

Here's wishing all of you and your families a Happy and Healthy New Year! 

SPOTLIGHT: SAAZ AGGARWAL, CLASS OF 1977

SPOTLIGHT: SAAZ AGGARWAL, CLASS OF 1977 

Starting with this blog post, we begin a series titled, "Spotlight" where we focus on Old Lawrencians who are in the news! 

The first OL to be in our spotlight is Saaz Aggarwal of the Class of 1977. 

The XI Bangalore Literature Festival held on December 3 and 4, 2022 featured a galaxy of authors who spoke about their work. I was happy to see Saaz amongst them. In her session she  spoke about her latest book, "Losing Home, Finding Home" a moving account of people displaced from Sindh, following the Partition of India and thereafter. 

Conversing with her was another OL, the renowned  business journalist Senthil Chengalvarayan, Class of 1981. He was the founding editor of CNBC TV 18 and Editor in Chief of Network 18's Business news room. 

 I met Saaz for the first time in 2012, when Mathew Anthony, Class of 1965, brought a few of us OL authors together in the first OL Book Reading at Founders. 

From left to right: OL authors, N.D. Badrinath, 1974, Prem Rao, 1967, Saaz Aggarwal 1977 and Lakshmanan Solayappan, 1982 with Mr. Someswara Rao who co-ordinated the event on behalf of School. 

We recently shot off a few questions to Saaz about School and her times there. 

1. When were you at School? From 1971 to 1977. Which House were you in? Pankaj

2. Was there any particular reason your parents/you chose Lovedale?

Yes - my father was a tea planter so we had to be in a boarding school. And we were lucky that our parents wanted to send us - my brother, Ravi Savur, 1980 and me  - to the best school in India 😊 
3. What are your main memories of life at School:  Use 5 words that come to mind … (not sentences)

homesick

tuck

Founders

CT (*cheap thrill)

scrounging (*looking for food in the kitchen after mealtime – not like we were deprived, just always hungry!)

 

4. Which member of the staff, if any, had a strong influence on you, and why? 
Ma Baloo, that's Mrs CY Balakrishnan, Pankaj Housemistress and Maths teacher. I wrote an obituary for her when she died, and putting it together all those years later gave me a sense of how many different ways she had influenced me … 

There were also others like our headmaster LA Vyas and our librarian Mr V Mohanraj whom I am so grateful to for encouraging me to write and convincing me that I was a writer!

5. Are you in touch with your old school friends? Whom have you known for the longest period? What do you like best about this association? 
Very much in touch. 

The longest period .... Rachel Varugis (Chakola), Chitra Rajan (Gopinath) ... they were already in school when I joined, and were in my house ... 

Senthil and Abhirami Sinniah were younger but our parents were close friends and we knew them practically since they were born, long before we joined schools ... 

Also all my classmates ... 

 

 

Standing: M.S. Anitha, Kanchana Chandy (Sunderarajan), Rachel Varugis (Chakola), Solai Alagappan, Claire Pereira, Latha K.K. (Sabikhi)

Sitting: Jyothi Sumukadas (Gopalan), Nita Chopra (Joshi), Chitra Rajan (Gopinath), Semanti Sinha Ray (Mehra), Pamela Sarin (Bakshani), Saaz Savur (Aggarwal)

And many from other batches, some really dear friends (like Mathew Anthony and Niloufer Kapadia both 1965, Dayal Mirchandani 1970 and others) whom I never knew in school …

Apart from the feeling of comfort in being connected to people whom you have 'always' known, there's also a strong sense of belonging together because of the shared experience ... nobody else can really understand that peculiar space we once inhabited!

6. What are some learnings from School that have helped you later in your life?

- The ability to quickly adapt outside one's comfort zone without a fuss ...

- The 3-minute bath - a truly priceless asset, ah how I wish my kids had been to boarding school too ...

- Never Give In!

7.  Is there any incident that you will remember for ever? 

Hahaha, many, but here’s one. This Science experiment photo was on the notice board and someone added a moustache to my face. 

The others in the Physics lab are: Uma Maheshwaran, Joseph Michael, Ashok Kumar, Claire Pereira, Nita Chopra (Joshi),  Saaz Savur (Aggarwal)  Pamela Sarin (Bakshani) 

I don’t know how I got this copy, perhaps I pinched it to save myself embarrassment! Or maybe I asked Mr Balaram, our Physics teacher who also ran the Photo Lab, for it. (Writing this, it occurs to me that when my photo was defaced he could have just taken it off the notice board himself but didn’t.)

But then, Mr Balaram was the one who had entered the annals of School's history by slapping me! I was reading a Barbara Cartland, holding it under the desk and trying to multitask – absorb Physics principles while also absorbed in the romance. Balaram called me to the front of the class, made me hold the book up, and let loose. As far as I know, it was the first time in School’s history that a male teacher had raised a hand on a girl student, hopefully it was the last. In our time, corporal punishment still had a place in education. 

8. What are the writing/other projects that you are currently working on?

- I'm presently working hard to promote my new book, Losing Home, Finding Home!

- Also working on a family history project 

- Planning to start a podcast along with one of my contributors to Sindhi Tapestry

- During lockdown, I did some 'lockdown' art and one series incorporated keys ... someone saw it and commissioned me to work on a keys installation for a mainstream lock-and-key company ... I'm in the process of figuring out what size it should be, what media to use, and so on.

 

Are there any links you would like to share with our OL audience which elaborate on your writing /work?

https://www.saazaggarwal.com/

https://thesongbirdonmyshoulder.blogspot.com/

https://sindhstories.wordpress.com/

http://blackandwhitefountain.com/

 

Thank you, Saaz for speaking with us and for providing the accompanying photographs!