Comments on: THE LAWRENCE SCHOOLS – By Joseph Thomas

By: Dr K K Chandran

Dr K K Chandran — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 17:44:00 +0000

Nostalgic and good to have all this archived for future generations. Well done JT.
Chandran Sumeru51-56

By: Joseph Thomas

Joseph Thomas — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 06:59:15 +0000

Have put out a request for whereabouts in the air force group. You are right about MG Gopal Rao. He is from the 1959 batch. Unforgettable. A bundle of pure muscle.

Yes, he went through a flying accident on the Vampire at Pune. The engine failed soon after take off and he had to force land straight ahead. The plywood and balsa machine withstood the forced landing but the canopy would not open. Finally, he broke it open by pushing with his shoulder. Got out before the aeroplane caught fire.

Subsequently, he flew Canberras. By then he had mellowed. We were in different stations. Lost contact after we both left the air force.

By: Joseph Thomas

Joseph Thomas — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 06:59:15 +0000

Have put out a request for whereabouts in the air force group. You are right about MG Gopal Rao. He is from the 1959 batch. Unforgettable. A bundle of pure muscle.

Subsequently, he flew Canberras. By then he had mellowed. We were in different stations. Lost contact after we both left the air force.

By: Kevin Phillips

Kevin Phillips — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:02:22 +0000

Well researched and well presented article. Well done Joseph Thomas

By: Arvind Baliga

Arvind Baliga — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:01:11 +0000

great job

By: Hamid Shahul

Hamid Shahul — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:59:30 +0000

Tommy a deeply absorbing and an interesting account of Lawrence Lovedale, of course some references to an old Lawrence at Murree. Well articulated. Good job. As a parent I did not know many things about its past. Thank U.

By: Varkey Alapat

Varkey Alapat — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:54:31 +0000

wow. nicely done. lot of work put into preparing it. Mrs Enos, and Mrs Koshy looking so good

By: Mathew Anthony

Mathew Anthony — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:50:46 +0000

What a magnificent write-up, Joseph Thomas !

By: Joseph Thomas

Joseph Thomas — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:46:18 +0000

Thanks Moira. You are very kind.

By: Moira Breen

Moira Breen — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:44:22 +0000

Thank you ever so much for the history of Lovedale. It is the best history I have ever seen – with such lovely pictures of the school, the children in formation on the parade ground and the beautiful shot of a boy horseback riding and jumping hurdles. . Thank you so much for showing the picture of Sir Henry Lawrence as a young man. Such a contrast to his later pictures and statue. He was only 51 years old when he was killed. Thank you very very much for including me in your presentation, it is a great honor to represent my generation in the history of the school.

I liked Patricia Thurley ‘s story of her family and how the children got to school via bullock cart. I remember Patsy Thurley very well in school. She was a beautiful dancer and figured in many of the shows put on by Miss Mather. My mother did tell me that before the railroad was formed through the Nilgiri Hills, the bullock cart was was the mode of travel. Patricia Thurley’s family was not the only one that was abandoned in England. I have an uncle by marriage whose father was a British soldier. He married an Anglo-Indian in India, and took her and the children with him to England and abandoned them there. Somehow the mother managed to get herself and her three sons (one of whom had been born in England) back to India and she got them into the Lawrence School in Ghora Gali. . All three sons did very well in Ghora Gali – two became physicians and the third a school teacher.

I am in the process of making a will. Neither my brother nor I have had children. For this reason I would like to leave some money to the Scholarship Fund in the Lawrence School in Lovedale. Could you advise me on whom to contact.

Once again, thank you for writing such a marvelous story of the Lawrence School in Lovedale.

With best wishes and many thanks,
Moira