John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, (4 March 1811 – 27 June 1879), known as Sir John Lawrence, Bt., between 1858 and 1869, was a prominent British Imperial statesman and served as the Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869.

Early life Lawrence was born in Richmond, North Riding of Yorkshire. He was the youngest son born into an Ulster-Scots family, his mother, Letitia Knox, being from County Donegal while his father was from Coleraine in County Londonderry. Lawrence spent his early years in Derry, a city in the Province of Ulster in the northern part of Ireland, and was educated at Foyle College and Wraxhall School in Bath. His father had served in India as a soldier in the British Army and his elder brothers included Sir George Lawrence and Sir Henry Lawrence.

At the age of sixteen, despite wishing for a military career like his brothers, his father enrolled him at the East India Company College, Haileybury, believing a career as a civil servant offered better prospects. He attended Haileybury for two years, where by his own admission he was neither very idle nor very industrious, yet he won prizes in history, political economy and Bengali.

Passage to India Lawrence entered the Bengal Civil Service and in September 1829 he set sail for India with his brother Henry. On arrival he settled at Fort William where he was expected to pass examinations in local vernacular. Having successfully mastered Persian and Urdu, Lawrence's first job was as a magistrate and tax collector in Delhi. After four years in Delhi he was transferred to Panipat and two years hence was placed in charge of Gurgaon district.

In 1837, Lawrence was made a settlement officer at Etawah. Whilst doing the role he caught jungle fever and was close to death. He spent three months in Calcutta to convalesce but having failed to recover he returned to England in 1840. The following year, whilst in County Donegal he met and married his wife Harriette in August 1841. The couple then spent six months travelling Europe until news from the First Anglo-Afghan War led to them returning to England, and back to India in the autumn of 1842.

On his return to India, Lawrence was appointed a Civil and Sessions Judge in Delhi, and given responsibility over Karnal. During the First Anglo-Sikh War between 1845 and 1846, Sir Henry Hardinge sent orders for Lawrence to assist the armed forces. He played a key role ahead of the Battle of Sobraon, ensuring supplies and guns were collected and transferred to the battle.

Punjab Jullundur and the Hill States At the conclusion of the First Anglo-Sikh War, Hardinge appointed Lawrence to govern the newly-annexed Jullundur district and Hill States regions of the Punjab. In that role, Lawrence was known for his administrative reforms, his subduing the hill tribes and his attempts to end the custom of suttee. He attempted to tackle the issue of female infanticide by successfully threatening the Bedis with confiscation of their lands unless they gave up the practice. His assistant Robert Cust described Lawrence's interviews with native land-holders as follows:

Another assistant, Lewin Bowring, described how he had a rough tongue with the local chiefs, who had a wholesome dread of him. He was described as far abler than his brother at details but was not held in as much affection by the chiefs.

Board of Administration Victory in the Second Anglo-Sikh War established East India Company dominance in the Punjab, and on 30 March 1849, the Punjab was proclaimed a province of British India. Lawrence was appointed to a three-man Board of Administration to govern the province, headed by his elder brother Henry. He was responsible for numerous reforms, including the abolition of internal duties and the establishment of a common currency and postal system. Lawrence championed improvements to local infrastructure and raising money for public works, including an extension of the Grand Trunk Road from Delhi to Peshawar, the construction of a highway from Lahore to Multan, and construction on the Bari Doab Canal which provided a boon to cultivators in the area. He was also known for being financially astute, overseeing a fifty percent increase in revenue and ensuring the Punjab was delivering a surplus of over one million pounds sterling within three years of the Board being instituted.

Lawrence disagreed with his brother Henry's policy of retaining the support of the local aristocracy, arguing it was too extravagant and hurting finances. In December 1852, having overseen a highly productive period of governance, the Lawrence brothers offered their resignations. Lord Dalhousie also feeling the necessity of a Board of Administration had ceased, sought to replace it with the new role of Chief Commissioner. Dalhousie rejected Lawrence's resignation, instead making him the first Chief Commissioner, meanwhile Henry went on to become Agent in Rajputana.

Chief Commissioner As Chief Commissioner, Lawrence carried on the policies from before - public works were extended, industry and education encouraged and surveying completed. He granted greater authority to villages, and upheld the decisions of village headsmen. In addition, Lawrence now also had responsibility for managing the mercurial group of assistants recruited by his brother known as Henry Lawrence's "Young Men".

In February 1856, Lawrence returned to Calcutta to wish farewell to the departing Lord Dalhousie who was retiring to England. As a parting gift, Dalhouse recommended Lawrence for the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. Whilst in Calcutta, Lawrence spent three days with Henry, in what would be the last time the brothers were together.

Indian Mutiny

Lawrence was in Rawalpindi when he received news of a sepoy uprising in Meerut.

The Punjab garrison in May 1857 was 60,000 strong, consisting of 10,000 Europeans, 36,000 Hindustani sepoys and 14,000 Punjabi irregulars. His first step was to disarm potentially disaffected sepoys by splitting them into detachments and dispatching them to the Afghan frontier where they were less likely to rebel. His next steps were to send the Corps of Guides, 1st Punjabi's (Coke's Afridis), 4th Sikhs and 4th Punjab Infantry seven hundred miles to Delhi. To patrol the now militarily depleted Punjab, Lawrence then at the suggestion of John Nicholson and Herbert Edwardes deployed a movable column of lightly equipped European and Punjabi troops, and chose Neville Chamberlain to lead it.

To guarantee the loyalty of the Punjab, he requested Sikh chiefs show gratitude for leniency following annexation, and Patiala, Jhind, Nabha and Kapurthala all offered troops and money in support of the British. This ensured the lines of communication between Delhi and Lahore remained open. He wrote to influential Sikhs who had previously rebelled during the Second Sikh War, and successfully secured their support by offering them a chance of redemption if they lent support against the mutiny. Lawrence was also able to gain the support of Muslims in the Punjab such as the Nawab of Karnal.

As the fighting continued, Lawrence felt inclined to send the large contingent of European soldiers stationed at Peshawar to Delhi. This raised the prospect of an attack by Dost Mohammed Khan when the Peshawar garrison was left less secure. Lawrence's assistants, led by John Nicholson and even the Governor-General, Lord Canning, were insistent on the need to protect Peshawar. Lawrence nonetheless placed greater importance on the fall of Delhi, and pressed ahead with the re-deployment of troops to Delhi. By 6 September, Lawrence wrote to Lord Canning that the Punjab had sent every man they could spare. On 14 September, Delhi had been recaptured and due to his actions Lawrence was acclaimed as the 'Saviour of India'.The Times, 29 July 1858, p. 8.

Aftermath of Rebellion In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, the British perpetrated acts of vengeance, including summary executions.Metcalf, The Aftermath of Revolt, p. 295. In February 1858 Delhi became part of the Punjab, and Lawrence took steps to check the acts of vengeance. That same month he wrote to Lord Canning urging him to permit sepoys who had not taken part in the mutiny to return home, and to grant an amnesty for those who did not murder anyone and had given up their arms.

Calls were made to raze Delhi to the ground, and dismantle the Jama Masjid, however Lawrence resisted such calls stating holy places should be spared. Popular opinion within British society was shaped by partisan reports of atrocities committed by the rebels and demanded the most severe retribution on the alleged culprits, an opinion which was resisted by Lord Canning and Lawrence. As many as 800,000 Indians and possibly more, both in the rebellion (150,000 dead) and in famines and epidemics of disease (650,000 dead) in its wake, by comparison of 1857 population estimates with the Indian Census of 1871. About 6,000 British occupiers or family members were killed.

In 1858, the Punjab was made a Lieutenant Governorship which resulted in an increase in staff and other privileges. In February 1859, Lawrence handed over power to Robert Montgomery and set sail for England. For his service in the mutiny he was created a baronet, granted a GCB, made a Privy Councillor and received an annual pension from the East India Company of £2,000. On arrival in England he was greeted with a lavish ceremony at Guildhall and afforded an audience with Queen Victoria. He also took up a role with the Council of India based at Whitehall.

Additionally he received the freedoms of the cities of London (1858) and Glasgow (1860), the freedom of the Worshipful Company of Grocers (1859) and honorary doctorates of civil law from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (1859).Bosworth Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence, vol. II, chs. 8 & 9.

Viceroy of India

On 12 January 1864, Lawrence returned to India, succeeding Lord Elgin as Viceroy of India. His stated ambitions as Viceroy were to consolidate British power and to improve the ‘condition of the people’. One of his first acts was to ban the Hindu practice of throwing their dead into the Hooghly River.Bosworth Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence, vol. II, p. 418 To enable Lawrence to claim both his annuity from the East India Company and his full salary as Viceroy, the Salary of Sir J. Lawrence Act 1864 was passed in March 1864.

Domestic policy Domestically, Lawrence sought to increase tenant security and to reduce fiscal assessments imposed on Indians, believing that what had worked in the Punjab would work across British India. He saw light taxation as a matter of fairness and pragmatism, arguing that for Indian yeomen to safeguard British rule it was essential that they should feel the benefits of a British administration. Lawrence resisted calls for increasing the taxation of salt that would have disproportionately affected poorer Indians. He calculated that the excise on salt increased its price as much as twelvefold in the Punjab, and perhaps by eight times in the North West Provinces. Lawrence abhorred the stance taken by many of his compatriots, who considered it their 'prerogative while in India to pay no taxation at all.' He characterised the non-official British community in India as 'birds of passage', rushing to amass wealth as quickly as possible with no care for what happened after their departure.

Arguably the greatest failure of Lawrence's tenure was the Orissa famine of 1866, in which an estimated one million Indians died. Part of the criticism focused on his moving the government apparatus to the cooler hills of Simla which was geographically remote from the centre of power in Calcutta. In response, Lawrence offered his resignation, but this was refused by Viscount Cranborne.

Foreign policy Lawrence's fame and extensive regional knowledge afforded him considerable scope by Westminster in determining Indian foreign policy.