ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>LAWRENCE SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (1806-1857)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="LAWRENCE,SIR,HENRY,MONTGOMERY,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (1806-1857), elder brother of Governor-General John Laird Mair Lawrence, was born on 28 June 1806 at Matura, in Ceylon. After education at schools in Londonderry and Bristol, he joined the Bengal Artillery, in 1823, as a Second Lieutenant. In 1833, he was appointed an officer for the revenue survey of North-West Province, and, in 1839, he became assistant to the political agent, North-West Frontier Agency, at F&#299rozpur. In 1841, when he was posted to Pesh&#257war, he took part in the <u>Kh</u>aibar operations. From 1843 to 1846, he was resident in Nepal. In 1846, after the first Sikh war, Lord Hardinge appointed him agent at Lahore and, after the treaty of Bharov&#257l the same year, he became the British resident there. He served as chairman of the Board of Administration after annexation.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Few Englishmen of that time, it has been said, understood the Sikhs as well as did Sir Henry Lawrence. He had come in contact with them in 1839, first as Political Assistant at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 and then in the same capacity at F&#299rozpur. His admiration of the hardy and militant race of the Sikhs enabled him to handle with tact the Darb&#257r politics when, after the treaty of Bharov&#257l, he wielded unlimited power as Resident at Lahore. Sympathy and moderation marked his treatment of the Sikhs and he throughout resisted Lord Hardinge's more stringent policy. His civil administration was run by a council of eight leading <i>sard&#257rs</i>, six of them Sikhs, one Hindu and one Muhammadan, each with specific portfolios.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Towards the Sikh army, Henry Lawrence adopted a conciliatory attitude. He introduced a system of regular payments against the old practice of keeping the troops in arrears for months. He was convinced of the qualities of the Sikh soldiers and recommended their wholesale enlistment in the British army. Thus he sought to pacify the common mass of the disbanded soldiery and attach it to British interests. He reduced tensions in the frontier districts by pacification and settlement of the Sindh S&#257gar Do&#257b, Bann&#363, Haz&#257r&#257, Pesh&#257war and the entire trans-Indus region.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Politically, Henry Lawrence was apprehensive of the influence of Mah&#257r&#257&#7751&#299 Jind Kaur, widow of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh. He detained her in the Lahore Fort and implicated her in what is known as the Prem&#257 plot In August 1847, he had her expelled from Lahore. Earlier, he had been instrumental in the expulsion and dismissal of Waz&#299r L&#257l Si&#7749gh, who was believed to have been behind the Kashm&#299r revolt.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In pursuing a moderate policy towards the Sikhs and the Punjab, Lawrence had to wage a private war with the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie. At heart, he was opposed to the annexation of the Sikh kingdom. In his communication to the Home Government and to friends in England, he described the annexation of the Punjab as immoral, unjust and impolitic. Eventually, he fell out with the Governor-General. The latter did not like Lawrence personally, nor his policies. He was also resentful of his popularity among the Sikhs. As he commented sarcastically: "[Lawrence] supposes himself as the king of the Punjab."</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In January 1853, Henry Lawrence resigned his post as chairman of the Board of Administration owing to differences with Lord Dalhousie. He was killed in action on 4 July 1857 while defending the Lucknow residency during the Indian rising.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Khilani, N.M., <i>Punjab under the Lawrences</i>, 1846-58. Punjab Government Records Office Monograph No.2<BR> <li class="C1"> Smith, Vincent, <i>The Oxford History of India</i>. Oxford, 1958<BR> <li class="C1"> Hasrat, Bikrama Jit, <i>Anglo-Sikh Relations</i>. Hoshiarpur, 1968<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">B. J. Hasrat<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>