Lawrence School, Lovedale

Infobox School2
name = Lawrence School


motto = "NEVER GIVE IN"
established = September 6, 1858
founded = Major General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence
type = Public school
head_name = Headmaster
head = Lt. Col YHVS Prasad (retd)
city = Lovedale
state = Tamil Nadu
country = India
pupils = 700 (approx.)
website = [http://www.thelawrenceschool.org/ www.thelawrenceschool.org] The Lawrence School, Lovedale (near Ootacamund ), Tamil Nadu, is named after Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence.Lawrence had mooted the idea about the establishment of a chain of schools with a view to provide education to the children of the deceased and serving soldiers and officers of the British army. Lawrence was himself killed in the Indian rebellion of 1857, also called India’s First War of Independence. His dream took shape and four such schools, initially known as Lawrence Asylum, were established in different parts of India: the first two during his lifetime in the year 1847 at Sanawar, the second at Mount Abu in 1856; the third at Ootacamund in 1858 and the fourth in Ghora Gali, Murree in 1860, (Murree was then a part of undivided India, but became part of Pakistan after partition).

The name, emblem and motto

In the year 1913, the name of the school was changed from Lawrence Asylum to Lawrence Memorial School. On being accorded the royal patronage in 1922, the name of the school was changed in 1925 to the Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School. Soon after India’s independence, the school was handed over to the civilian authorities of Government of India in 1949 and the name of the school was changed to the Lawrence School.

As the school was located in Lovedale, the school and Lovedale became synonymous, and the school became familiar as simple 'Lovedale', by which name it continues to be widely known.

The motto of the school is "NEVER GIVE IN" as visible in the school emblem. The motto embodies the spirit of the Lawrencian – to pursue a task to its fullest , giving one’s best at all times. The motto is believed to instil in the pupils the spirit of excellence and the tenacity to overcome obstacles and blocks to achieve one’s goals.

The campus

The Lawrence School, Lovedale, has a sprawling campus of 750 acres (3 km²). Lovedale, six kilometres (3.7 miles) from Ootacamund, is located at a height of 7200 feet over sea level, slightly lower than the Dodabetta peak (altitude: 8000 feet), the highest peak of the mountain ranges of the Niligiris.The school campus is divided into prep school, junior school and senior school based on the classes.

Prep school - Class 4 to Class 6

Junior School - Class 7 & Class 8

Senior School - Class 9 to Class 12

The classrooms and dormitories of the different schools are housed in the respective buildings. All the girls are housed in the girl's school and are required to go to the respective schools for classes. Though the campus is huge, the built up area is only 45 acres (0.2 KM²).The school is run by a Board Of Governors appointed by the Governmnet Miistry Of Human Resources department.The Current board is chaired by a former senior civil servant and has eminent members from different sectors.The school in recent times has made rapid strides in academics with results in the board exams improving from year to year.Recently the school celebrated 150th year of its founding with hundreds of alumni from all over the world participating including an alumni who left school in the late 1930 with Dr. APJ Kalam taking the salute at the grand parade.

Eminent old Lawrencians

ARTS / LITERATURE / JOURNALISM

HY MONEY (nee Hyacinth Price-Daniels) - UK's FIRST Woman Sports Photographer

Nicholas Horsburgh - Author

Arundhati "Suzie" Roy - Author of Booker Prize winning novel The God of Small Things

Zayd Yar Khan - Creative Director, Dynamite Digital Media

Padmashree Anjolie Ela Menon - Artist (Padmashree Award Winner)

Neena Heble - Artist

Mr. Shanth Kumar - Proprietor, Deccan Herald

Madan Mohan Rao - Reuters

Farrokh Chothia - Leading Fashion Photographer

Pratap Pothen - Actor & Director

Arish Fyzee - Film Director

Anand Parthasarthy - Music and Film critic

Akshaye Khanna - Actor

Ram charan TEJ - Actor(son of eminent actor & politican Mega star Dr.Chiranjeevi

Zaffar Hai - Film Producer/AD Films

Malini White - Director, Amateur Theater

Adil Gandhy - Art Gallery Chemould

Rukhmini Krishnan - Interior Designer/Costume designer

Kapila Venu - Bharatnatyam

Revathi Swaminathan Mukherjee - Producer of award winning film on "Silent Valley".

N Chandramohan, Ph.D - Consulting Editor, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Thomas Abraham, former Editor, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong CORPORATE WORLD

Arjun Rajaratnam - V.P. Compliance, GlaxoSmithKline

M.Sridhar - Director & Head- Legal, Rabo India Finance

Nadir Yar Khan - Marketing Manager, W.J.Towell's Consumer Products Division

Sashi Reddi - CEO, AppLabs

M.A. Alagappan - Chairman, Murugappa Group

Mathew Antony - CEO, Softscan

Zarir Batliwala - Director-HR, Hewlett Packard India

Krishnadeva Rao, MD, Orient Longmann & Co.

Theo Devagnamam - CEO, Needle Industries

Rajiv.K.Shivashankaran - CEO, Benchmark Softec Limited

Jose Dominic - CEO, Casino Hotels Groups

Michael Horsburgh - GM, Holiday Inn, Bangkok

Niloufer Kapadia - CEO, Everest Advertising

Vikram Kirlosker - Kirloskar Industries

Anand Gopal Mahindra - Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Arvind Mathew - Managing Director and President, Ford (India)

Aditya Menon - Proprietory Software Co. - Visual Web

V. Narayanan - Former Chairman, Ponds

Raghu Ravunni Palat - banker

Viju Parameshwar - President & CEO, Klueber Lubrication

K V L Narayan Rao - Group CEO & Executive Director, NDTV

M. M. Murugappan, Chiarman, Carborundum Universal (CUMI) Ltd.,

M.M. Sundaram - CEO, Tusker Paper Boxes

Abraham Tharakan - CEO, Amalgam

Ramesh Venketaswaran -

A. Palaniappan, MD, Chess Management Services Pvt. Ltd.

Nikhil Chandra Varma - Skills Enhancement, EDS

BUREAUCRACY / ARMED FORCES / POLITICAL / BANKING

Rear Admiral K.R. Menon - Defence Analyst/Author

Vice Admiral Krishna Raina, AVSM - Chief of Logistics, Indian Navy

Maj Gen Satish Nair, Rajput Regt, Army HQ

Brig Ajit Nair, Commandant MIRC, Ahmednagar

Rear Admiral Anil K. Chopra, AVSM - Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet

Brig. A.I.S. Dhillon, VSM,Col. of the Garhwal Rifles

T Gundan - ex-Member of Legislative Assemby, Ooty

Ashok Koshy - IAS Gujarat Cadre

Latika Saran - IPS Tamilnadu Cadre

Wing Cdr. Ravi Kapoor - Senior Pilot Jet Air

Rajesh Vidyasagar - World Bank

Capt. Lal Sadrangani - Boeing Capt., Air India Retd.

Capt. Gubby Krishnan - Capt. Indian Airlines Retd.

SOCIAL WORK / NGO

Srilatha Swaminathan - Social Activism

Nomita Chandy - Ashraya and Citizens Action Group

Dr. Uttara Vidyasagar - VishawasNikhi Dey - Associate of Aruna Roy -(Magsaysay awardee) Social activist on Right to Information

Vipul Purohit - Socialist worker

Shireen Vakil Miller - Head of Policy and Advocacy, Save the Children (Bal Raksha Bharat)

DOCTORS / MEDICAL

Dr. Sherene Devanesen (Nee Hensman) - Director,Medical Services, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria

Dr Kenneth Hine ) - Kendal, Cumbria, U.K.

Lieut.Commander (Dr.) Salim Joseph Thomas- Nao Sena Medal- Indian Navy (Retired)-Member and Doctor of the First Indian Scientific Expedition to Antactica-Practising Oncologist and Surgeon-Apollo Cancer Hospital Chennai-Professor of Surgery-Saveeta Institute of Medical and Technological Sciences, Chennai.

Dr.Dilaawar Mistry - Co-Medical Director of Sports Medicine, University of Virginia, Team Physician - USA Swimming, Charlottesville, VA, USA ACADEMIC HONOURS / EDUCATIONAL/ TEACHING / RESEARCH

Harsha E. Chacko, Ph.D. - Professor, Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration, University of New Orleans

Dr. K. George Chandy, M.B.B.S., Ph.D. - Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine [http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2178] .

K. Mani Chandy, Ph.D. - Simon Ramo Chair Professor and Professor of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology. Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering [http://www.cs.caltech.edu/cspeople/faculty/chandy_m.html] .

R.P. Gokarn - Professor of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, IIT Kharagpur

Shanto Iyengar, Ph.D. - Harry & Norman Chandler Professor of Communications, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Political Communication Laboratory, Stanford University [http://communication.stanford.edu/faculty/iyengar.html] .

Uday Karmakar, Ph.D. - Times Mirror Chair Professor in Management & Policy and Research Director of the Center for Management in the Information Economy at the Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Received the Distinguished Service Award of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 2006 [http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/uday.karmarkar/] .

Sarosh Kuruvilla, Ph.D., Professor of Collective Bargaining, Comparative Industrial Relations & Asian Studies at the Industrial Labor Relations School, Cornell University [http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/directory/sck4/] .

Ravi Arvind Palat, Ph.D., Political Economist and Historical Sociologist [http://sociology.binghamton.edu/people/faculty/palat.htm]

Rashna Batliwala Singh, Ph.D. Professor of English and author of "Goodly is Our Heritage: Children’s Literature, Empire, and the Certitude of Character" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004);"The Imperishable Empire: British Fiction on India" (Three Continents Press, 1988); contributor to "Asian American Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook" (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002). One of two professors in the state awarded the Massachusetts Council for International Education Lectureship. Sangram S. Sisodia, Ph.D., Thomas Reynolds Sr. Family Professor of Neurosciences, Dept. of Neurobiology, and Director, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University of Chicago [http://pps.bsd.uchicago.edu/faculty/sangram_sisodia.html] .

SOCIALITES/BEAUTY WORLD

Meher Mistry - Miss India - Fashion Design

Neena Pillai

Roopa Satyan - Miss India & Miss Young India 1972

Gul Kirat Panag - Miss India 1998

SPORTS

N.C. Subbhiah - Equestrian

J.J. Chakola III - Silver Medallist, Doha Asian Games 2007

Jennifer Fraser Nandi - Adventure Sports

Col. Ravi Shanmugam - Golf

Kirtana Bidappa - Golf

Sherbir Panag - Indian Shooting Team.

The Affiliation

*Currently, the school is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi.
*Member of IPSC
*Member of RSISFact|date=February 2007

ee also

*Lawrence School, Ghora Gali
*Lawrence School, Sanawar

External links

* [http://www.lovedale.org/pictures/ Pictures of Lawrence School by Farrokh Chothia]
* [http://ristretto.ecn.purdue.edu/~sonusv/Lawrence/Lawrence.html Pictures of the Lawrence School, Lovedale]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oldlaws/ The Lawrence School, Lovedale Alumni Group]