Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/20

 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The father of Henry Montgomery Lawrence was Colonel Alexander Lawrence, of the British army, a veteran of Seringapatam, who had passed through a career of hard service, wounds, and privations; a typical son of Derry, strong, brave, resolute, peculiarly simple-minded and conscientious — characteristics of which he left the inheritance to his large family of sons and daughters. Six of the sons grew up to manhood, of whom Henry was the third. Three others, George, who was older, and John (the future Lord Lawrence) and Richard, who were younger, were all much associated with Henry during his career in India.

Henry was born in Ceylon on June 28, 1806, and, after the usual education at local schools, obtained an Addiscombe cadetship, and there won his commission in the Bengal Artillery, which he joined at its headquarters, Damdam, near Calcutta, in February, 1823.

During the next year a war broke out with Burma, and he served throughout its full course, including