The Lawrence School, Sanawar is a private boarding school in Himachal Pradesh, India. Located near Kasauli in Shimla Hills, it was established in 1847. Its history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious and oldest schools in the world. It is the oldest co-educational boarding school in Asia.
Situated in Solan district, Sanawar is about an hour's drive from Chandigarh. The school, founded by Sir Henry Lawrence and his wife Honoria, is one of the oldest surviving boarding schools.
The school is often referred to as "Sanawar". It is situated at a height of 1,750 metres and spread over an area of 139 acres, heavily forested with pine, deodar and other conifer trees. The school has been ranked among the best residential schools of India. In May 2013 Sanawar created history by becoming the first school in the world to send a team of seven students to climb Mount Everest. The motto of the school is "Never Give In".
Sanawar is affiliated to India's Central Board of Secondary Education.main page of sanawar.edu.in (official school website). Retrieved 6 March 2012 Children are admitted to Sanawar in February each year, at the age of nine and ten years. Class Five (Lower III) is preferred as the entry point. Admission is based on a competitive entrance examination, held the preceding November, followed by a personal interview.
History In the school's name, "Sanawar" is the name of the hill on which it stands.A. C. C. DeRenzy, 'Report on the Lawrence Military Asylum', Appendix III to Report on the sanitary administration of the Punjab (Punjab Medical Department, 1870), paragraphs 6 to 10 at pp. 46A & 47A: "His Honour will be surprised to hear that the children are subject to a very high sickness and death-rate, but such is the fact ...a considerable part of the drainage from south aspect of the Sanawar hill flows within a few paces of the place where the spring emerges... The spring is about two miles, from the Asylum... a separate hospital for the treatment of contagious diseases is indispensable." The nearest railway station is now usually spelt "Sonwara". at travel.yik.in. Retrieved 14 March 2012 Sanawar is believed to be the oldest mixed-gender boarding school anywhere in the world.Rahul Singh, The Times of India dated 23 June 2004, The Times of India. Retrieved 22 March 2012
Henry Lawrence's intent was to provide for the education of the orphans of British soldiers and other poor white children. In 1845 he outlined the creation of a boarding school in the Indian highlands for boys and girls.Dane Keith Kennedy, The Magic Mountains: hill stations and the British raj (1996), p. 136 The school at Sanawar was established as the first such asylum on 15 April 1847, when fourteen girls and boys arrived at Sanawar in the charge of Lawrence's sister-in-law Charlotte Lawrence, wife of George Lawrence, and a superintendent Healey.Edward Backhouse Eastwick, ed., Handbook of the Punjab, western Rajputana, Kashmir, and upper Sindh (John Murray, 1883), p. 172: "In April, 1847, Mrs. George Lawrence arrived at Sanawar with 14 girls and boys, and Surgeon Healy acted as superintendent." The school was co-educational from its beginning.Outlook (Hathway Investments Pvt Ltd, 1997), p. 98 The site had been chosen by Lawrence, after discussions with William Hodson and others, considering that it was an "ideal location" which "afforded the necessary requisites: isolation, ample space, water, a good altitude, and all not too far from British troops".Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research vol. 81 (issues 325-328) (London: Society for Army Historical Research, 2003), p. : "After discussing the merits of a suitable site with Hodson and others it was decided that the school would be established on the hill of Sanawar, near Kasauli. This ideal location afforded the necessary requisites: isolation, ample space, water, a good altitude, and all not too far from British troops." The construction of the buildings was paid for by Lawrence and other British officers, with a large contribution from Gulab Singh, the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hodson, who later became famous for Hodson's Horse, supervised the construction of the school's first buildings and is still commemorated by the annual Hodson's Run, a competition between the school's houses.Hodson of Hodson's Horse in The Sanawar News Letter, 1 May 1997 edition. Retrieved 22 March 2012 In the early days some Anglo-Indian children were admitted, but Lawrence insisted that preference should be given to those of "pure European" parentage, as he considered they were more likely to suffer from the heat of the plains.
Under its first professional headmaster, W. J. Parker, who was appointed in 1848, the school was known as "Lawrence's Asylum", reflecting its focus on orphans.'Photocopies and transcripts of extracts from diaries and papers of Maj-Gen William Clive Justice (1835-1908): 11: Copy of letter from Sir Henry Lawrence to Rev W. J. Parker' at , web site of the British Library. Retrieved 10 March 2012 In 1858 it was renamed the "Lawrence Royal Military School".
In its first two decades, the school suffered an unexpectedly high death rate, with forty children dying between 1848 and 1858, of whom thirteen were the victims of an outbreak of cholera in 1857. In the next ten years, there were seventy-two further deaths, and in 1870 a Punjab Medical Department report proposed measures to improve the school's sanitation, as well as "a separate hospital for the treatment of contagious diseases". The headmaster, John Cole, was inspired to write a book called Notes on Hygiene with Hints on Self-discipline for Young Soldiers in India (1882).Mark Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine (1994), p. 263Ajay Sura, from The Times of India dated 4 December 2011, online at indiatimes.com. Retrieved 25 April 2012
However, the then-Governor General, Lord Mountbatten, presided at the centenary celebrations and read out a message from King George VI. In June 1952 the ministry resolved to administer the school through a society created under the Societies Registration Act 1860, subject to a Memorandum of Association and rules and regulations to be approved by the government. These provided that the government Secretaries in the Ministries of Education, Defence, and Finance would serve as ex-officio members of the society, with four other members appointed by the government. The employees of the school, previously government servants, lost that status.Mohinder Singh vs Union Of India (15 May 1968); AIR 1969 Delhi 170 at indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 15 March 2012 The property and other assets of the school, which then had an estimated value of twenty-five lakhs of rupees, were transferred to the society with effect from June 1954.Letter No. F. 19-51/53-H 3, dated 18 June 1954, from the Under Secretary to the Government, Ministry of Education, stated that the President of the Republic of India had been pleased to transfer to the Society's Board, at no charge, the movable and immovable properties of the School, as at 1 October 1952.
The school celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1997, and India marked the occasion with a two-rupee commemorative postage stamp issued in October 1997 and inscribed "1847-1997 THE LAWRENCE SCHOOL SANAWAR".Issue date 04/10/1997, Serial Number 1738
Present day In 2003, The Tribune described it as one of about half a dozen elite public schools in India, catering to "an upwardly mobile landed and commercial elite".Baljit Malik, Sanawar: a school at odds with itself in The Tribune dated 1 May 2003, The Tribune. Retrieved 22 March 2012 It is an international member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, based in England.HMC Schools: International Members at hmc.org.uk. Retrieved 18 March 2012
Together with some other leading Indian schools, including The Doon School, The Scindia School, The Daly College, Mayo College, Rajkumar College, and Baldwin Boys High School, Sanawar is a member of the Round Square Conference, a worldwide association of some eighty schools which exchange students with each other. Other member schools include Aiglon College in Switzerland, Ballarat Grammar School in Australia, Deerfield Academy and Chadwick School in the United States, Wellington in England, and Gordonstoun in Scotland.Global Member Schools at roundsquare.org. Retrieved 14 March 2012
The school honours its original purpose by continuing to offer a reduction in fees for the children of military families. About a quarter of the boarders are the sons and daughters of former pupils., The Times of India, 4 July 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2012 Till recently, as part of its annual Founder's Day celebrations, attended by many Old Sanawarians, the school continued to troop the Royal colours. Until 1990, a significant number of school-leavers continued to join the armed forces but there has been a sharp decline in this tradition, and in 2011 one Old Sanawarian brigadier was quoted in The Times of India as saying that in his day "the main aim was to join the forces, but now hardly anyone is interested in doing so".
Sanawar is divided into four houses—Himalaya, Nilagiri, Siwalik and Vindhya. The houses compete with each other at activities such as cricket, cross country running, debating and many other activities.Sanawar celebrates Founder's Day from The Tribune dated 5 October 2006. Retrieved 22 March 2012The Sanawar News Letter dated 1 May 1997, online edition at oocities.org. Retrieved 22 March 2012
Notable alumni
Sanawar's former pupils are known as "Old Sanawarians", "OS" for short
Public life Amarinder Singh (born 1942), Former Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal (born 1962), Former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab president, Shiromani Akali DalVipin Pubby, Badal vs Badal at financialexpress.com. Retrieved 6 March 2012 Omar Abdullah (born 1970), Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Naveen Patnaik, Former Chief Minister of Odisha Dushyant Chautala, former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana Gurinder Singh Dhillon, Sant Satguru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas Chander Mohan, former Deputy Chief Minister of HaryanaLawrence School, Sanawar alumni The Times of India. Retrieved 26 March 2012 Navin Chawla (born 1945), former Chief Election Commissioner of IndiaChief Election Commissioner of India at indian-elections.com. Retrieved 14 March 2012 Maneka Gandhi (born 1956), Union Minister Child and women welfare, environmentalist and animal welfare activist. Jetsun Pema, Queen consort of BhutanAnand Bodh, dated 22 May 2011, from Times of India at indiatimes.com. Retrieved 14 March 2012 Rao Inderjit Singh (born 1951), politician, Union Minister of State for Defence ProductionHimachal Pradesh Residential schools: Smart learning The Tribune. Retrieved 11 March 2012 Bikram Singh Majithia, Former Minister in Government of Punjab Ajatshatru Singh, former Cabinet Minister in the Jammu and Kashmir Government Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Lt Governor of Delhi Uzair, former minister in government of Jammu and Kashmir. Vinod Sultanpuri, MLA, Himachal Pradesh
Armed services Vishnu Bhagwat, a former Chief of Naval Staff, India Arun Khetarpal (1950-1971), youngest officer recipient of the Param Vir ChakraArun Khetarpal on Indian army's site, indianarmy.nic.in K. C. CariappaManjeet Sehgal Warrior, dated 8 October 2004 in The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 April 2012
Business Sonny Mehta, publisher and editor-in-chief of Alfred A. KnopfM. Prabha, The waffle of the toffs: a sociocultural critique of Indian writing in English (Oxford & IBH Publishing, 2000), p. 130 Jehangir Wadia, managing director of GoAir and Bombay DyeingWadia Family scribd.com. Retrieved 11 March 2012 Ness Wadia (born 1970), managing director of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation from The Times of India dated 2 April 2008, at web.archive.org. Retrieved 6 March 2012 Rakesh Mohan, Mohan Meakin Limited