• Born in Matara, Sri Lanka, of Anglo-Irish and Scottish descent, the fourth son of Colonel Alexander Lawrence and Catherine Letitia Knox, on June 28th 1806:
• educated at Foyle College. Derry, the Rev. James Gough's school at College Green, Bristol and the East India Company's Addiscombe College near Croydon:
• commissioned 2nd Lieutenant Bengal Artillery after passing out from Addiscombe in May 1822:
• sailed for India in February 1823, joining his battery in Dum Dum, near Calcutta:
• served in the first Burma war and took part in the capture of Arakan:
• appointed adjutant of artillery, south east division, April 1826:
• contracted Malaria in Burma and sent home on sick leave, August 1826:
• during his convalescence, met and courted his future wife Honoria Marshall of Fahan, Co. Donegal, Ireland:
• joined the trigonometrical survey in Ireland:
• returned to India in 1829 accompanied by his sister Honoria and younger brother John, arriving Calcutta in February 1830:
• posted to a Foot Artillery battery in Karnal, (Sindh Ed.) on the north-west frontier;
• lived with his elder brother George, and intensively studied his profession and Indian languages with the intention of obtaining future civil employment:
• qualified in Urdu, Persian and Hindi languages, 1832:
• with the help of his elder brother George, appointed assistant revenue surveyor in the North Western Provinces, assuming his duties at Moradabad in 1833:
• elevated to the rank of full surveyor 1835:
• promoted Captain of Artillery 1837:
• married Honoria Lawrence at St. John's Church, Calcutta on 21 August, 1837:
• accompanied by his wife, returned immediately to Gorakpur to continue with his survey duties. (His wife accompanied him on most of his field trips during his work for the revenue survey):
• while at Gorakpur, became involved in a dispute with a Captain McNaughton over a memoir of General Sir John Adams that he had adversely reviewed, and was dissuaded by his friends from fighting a duel:
• rejoined his battery on outbreak of First Anglo-Afghan war and asked to be placed at the disposal of the C-in-C, but following the reduction in the armies of the Indus, his services were not required, 1838:
• birth of first child, son Alexander Hutchinson, ('Alick'), in Allahabad, 1838:
• appointed officiating assistant to George Clerk, the Governor-General's Agent, (A.G.G), for the North West Frontier Provinces and the Punjab:
• took charge of civil administration of Ferozepur District, 1839:
• oversaw the rebuilding of Ferozepore, built a fort, improved roads, drainage, settled boundaries and, with his wife's help, found time to write a series of articles for the Delhi Gazette:
• confirmed in his appointment as assistant and deputy to the A.G.G., North West Frontier Provinces and the Punjab, March 1840:
• feeling now settled and secure in his first administrative appointment, built a house in Ferozepore, and at the same time built and furnished a small cottage for the summer months in the Simla hills at Kasauli, 1840/41:
• birth of second child, Letitia Catherine ('Lettice'), Ferozepore November 11th, 1840:
• death of his daughter Letitia Catherine at Subathu, August 1841:
• following the disastrous British retreat from Kabul, sent to Peshawar to assist the senior political officer, December 1841:
• went with Pollock's "Army of Retribution" into Afghanistan and up to Kabul, having joined the expedition at Jalalabad, August 1842:
• in command of the Sikh contingent, took part in the advance on Kabul and saw action at the battles of Tezin and Haft Kotal:
• returned to India in October 1842:
• promoted Brevet-Major, but disappointed at not being made a CB:
• mistakenly appointed superintendent of Dehra Dun and Mussooree, a covenanted Civil Service post for which he was not legally qualified:
• after three months in Dehra Dun, transferred to Ambala as assistant to the envoy at Lahore:
• adroitly and peacefully settled the state of Kaithal, bringing it under British rule after the Raja died without a successor, 1843:
• promoted to the important post of Resident at the court of Nepal, 1843:
• lived in Katmandu with his wife, (the first white woman in Nepal) from 1843 to 1845:
• promoted Major Bengal Artillery:
• wrote articles for the Calcutta Review and first conceived the notion, and advocated the establishment of asylums, (schools) in the hills for children of European soldiers:
• wrote and published Volume 1 of his first book, "Adventures of an Officer in the Service of Ranjit Singh" - Henry Colburn 1845:
• birth of third child, son Henry Waldemar ('Harry') in Katmandu, January 24th, 1845:
• accompanied his wife to Calcutta at the end of 1845, when it became clear that for her health and that of their two children, they needed to return to England:
• ordered to join the army of the Sutlej following the start of the First Anglo-Sikh War, January 1846:
• appointed A.G.G. for foreign affairs and for the affairs of the Punjab by Lord Ellenborough, governor-general, January 1846:
• present at the battle of Sobraon and later, the occupation of Lahore, February 1846:
• assisted in negotiating the treaties of Kasuri and Amritsar, February 1846:
• strongly opposed the annexation of the Punjab, preferring to leave the Sikh state intact as a potential source of support for the British. (Lawrence was firmly opposed in principle to the "annexation policy" of the Brtish in India):
• appointed the governor-general's agent for the affairs of the North-West Frontier Provinces, which were added to his responsibilities, April 1846:
• promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel for his services at Sobroan, June 1846:
• appointed Resident at Lahore, January 1847:
• founded the first school, (asylum) for children and orphans of European soldiers at Sanawar in the Simla hills, near Kasauli, April 15th, 1847:
• his arduous duties as Resident caused his health to fail and he proceeded on sick leave to England, November 1847:
• feted on arrival in England and on the recommendation of Hardinge, the retiring Governor-General, was made K.C.B in 1848:
• returned to India with his wife and son 'Harry' in November 1848 landing at Bombay a month later:
• leaving his family to follow at their own pace, he proceeded immediately by ship to Karachi and then up the Indus by steamer to Multan and finally overland to Lahore, joining the army in the field in early 1849:
• compelled the surrender of Kashmir to Gulab Singh:
• present at the siege of Multan, and witnessed the bloody battle of Chilianwala, January 1849:
• resumed his duties as Resident at Lahore, February 1st, 1849:
• resigned his post following the annexation of the Punjab to British India which he had always strongly opposed:
• eventually persuaded to withdraw his resignation by Lord Dalhousie and appointed President of the new Board of Administration for the affairs of the Punjab, (with his brother John and Charles Greville Mansell), April 1849:
• persuaded to accept the appointment of Agent to the Governor General, (A.G.G) for the Punjab. after its annexation (despite his former opposition) in April, 1849:
• birth of fourth child, daughter Honoria Letitia, ('Honey'), Lahore April 26th, 1850:
• following disputes on matters of policy between himself and his brother John, he resigned his post as President and the Board of Administration was abolished:
• bitterly disappointed that he was not given charge of the Punjab which went instead to his younger brother John:
• was offered and accepted the governor general's agency, (A.G.G) in Rajputana (Rajasthan) with the same salary as in the Punjab, 1853:
• declined Lord Dalhousie's offer of the residency in Hyderabad, (Central Provinces) on the grounds of his wife's ill health, July 1853:
• death of his wife Honoria who had been in bad health for several months, January 14th, 1854:
• appointed A.D.C. to Queen Victoria and promoted Colonel in the Army June 19th, 1854:
• established the second of the Lawrence Asylums in the Aravalli hills at Mt. Abu in 1856 and mooted the possibility of a third at "Utakamund" in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. (The asylums at Sanawar and Mt. Abu were supported at considerable self-sacrifice by him throughout his life);
• wrote to Lord Canning, the new Governor General, to set himself right on points which he believed he had been misjudged, February 29th, 1856:
• promoted (Regimental) Lieutenant Colonel of the Artillery:
• prepared to return to England with his daughter Honoria Letitia 'Honey' in order to restore his own health which was again failing;
• was offered and accepted the post of Chief Commissioner and A.G.G. in Oudh from March 21st, 1857 which he regarded as rightful compensation for the loss of the Punjab to his brother John, and as public recognition of his services:
• sent his daughter 'Honey' home and, despite his own ill health, took up his new post at Lucknow, March 1857:
• upon receiving news of the outbreak of the Indian "mutiny" in Meerut and Delhi, prepared, with great skill and foresight, for the defence of Lucknow, May 1857:
• promoted Major General and given command of all troops stationed in Oudh, 1857:
• after the disastrous engagement at Chinhut, on June 30th, fell back on, and limited the defence to the Residency:
• mortally wounded during the siege while resting in his room, by a piece of shrapnel from an exploding shell on July 2nd:
• despite his wounds and severe pain, gave detailed instructions about the conduct of the defence of the Residency, and ordered them never to surrender:
• died at about 8 a.m. on July 4th having earlier stated that his epitaph was simply to be "Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty":
• buried in the Residency churchyard at Lucknow on the same day, July 4th, 1857.

Ironically, before news of his death reached England, the Directors of the East India Company had convened to appoint him provisional Governor-General of India, should any accident have befallen Lord Canning during those troubled times. Henry Montgomery Lawrence, soldier, statesman and administrator, was commemorated by a statue erected to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral London, and with memorial tablets in St. Paul's Cathedral Calcutta and the church in Lucknow. His eldest son Alexander was created a Baronet in recognition of his services

During his time in India, he wrote several essays and books on Indian subjects, and had considerable literary merits. But he is best remembered for his administrative ability, his energy, his sympathies with the native aristocracy and consideration for the ordinary people, his high character and of course, his tragic death. Perhaps his most important and lasting legacy will be the military asylums, (latterly schools) he set up initially for the children and orphans of British soldiers which bear his name to this day. Two more Lawrence asylums were opened as memorials to him after his death, one, (as he had wished) at Lovedale, (Ootacamund) in the Nilgiri hills in 1859, and the other at Ghora Gali in the Murree hills in 1860. Certainly, there can be little chance of Henry Lawrence's name being forgotten among the many generations of children, whose lives and characters have been forged in one or other of these four hill schools.