Lawrence, Sir Henry Montgomery, 1806–57, British general and administrator in India; brother of John Laird Mair Lawrence. Commissioned (1822) in the Bengal artillery, he fought in Myanmar (1824–26), against the Afghans (1842), and in the Sikh Wars (1845–49). In 1847, Lawrence became a British resident at Lahore and began to reorganize the Punjab. He continued that work after the annexation (1849) of the Punjab, becoming head of the board of administration for the province. Resigning because of policy differences with his brother, who was also on the board, Lawrence was posted to Rajputana (1853) and then Oudh (1856). He was killed defending besieged Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny.
See biography by J. J. Innes (1898); M. Edwardes, The Necessary Hell (1958).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: South Asian History: Biographies
