Sir Robert Laidlaw of Whiteaway & Laidlaw - India
I am Thamilarasu Rajendran from India. I studied in THE LAIDLAW MEMORIAL SCHOOL, KETTI NILGIRIS, SOUTH INDIA. The Institution was name the St.George's Homes Society and was founded in the year 1914 as a HOME for the poor and destitute children of Anglican or Anglo Indian descent in India. It was started in the Hill Station of Kodaikanal in the year 1914 by Rev.Breeden. Subsequently Sir Robert Laidlaw bequeathed a tidy corpus fund in his will for this School. The School was named after him as the LAIDLAW MEMORIAL SCHOOL & JUNIOR COLLEGE. The School was run by the Lancashire Committee in UK who donated liberally towards the upkeep of the School. The School resides in a picturesques Landscape encompassing 219 acres at about 2400 meters above sea level in a valley called KETTI. It still maintains its Anglo Indian Heritage and is one of the highly coveted Educational Institutions in India. However, somewhere along the line, or perhaps after the Indian Independence, the connection with the Lancashire Committee was lost. I am the present PRESIDENT of the Alumni Association of the School. We need to know of the descendants or relatives of SIR ROBERT LAIDLAW. An extract from a book published in 1907 :
The book, "Rulewater and its People" by George Tancred of Weens, published in 1907, has more on this Laidlaw. Rulewater is in Roxburgshire.
"Robert, the second son of William Laidlaw and his wife Agnes Purdom, was born at Bonchester farmhouse on the 15th January 1856. He was educated at the Parish school at Kirkton, his father having some objection to Hobkirk. He began his business life in Hawick, and in the course of a few years he joined the wholesale textile trade in London. In the summer of 1875 he went to the South African Diamond Fields. In 1877 he went to India, and made a long residence in Calcutta. He has travelled extensively in Asia, Africa, and America, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. About the year 1882 he founded the great business house Whiteaway, Laidlaw, and Co. They have branches in about twenty cities on India and the Straits Settlements, as well as Shanghai. Mr. Robert Laidlaw, as M.P. for Renfrewshire, has turned his attention to parliamentary affairs, but his business in India still goes on and prospers (as of 1907). He married Mary, d/o Captain W. Blow Collins and widow of W. L. Francis, of the India Office, and has surviving issue, three daughters - Ethel, Mildred, Dorothy. A son, William, died in infancy. Mr. Laidlaw in memory of his father erected a handsome building called 'The Laidlaw Memorial Hall" at Bonchester Bridge, which is most useful in many ways, and has been a great boon to the district."
Please do visit our School Website at www.laidlawschool.org.
Those who have any details about SIR ROBERT LAIDLAW please email me at [email protected]
My Postal address is : T.R.Thamilarasu, TKR International, 23 South Raja Street, Tuticorin -628001. INDIA. Phone +91-94431-63156 and Fax +91-461-2321156; email : [email protected]
I Thank you all sincerely for reading this.
with warm regards,
Thamilarasu
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Re: Sir Robert Laidlaw of Whiteaway & Laidlaw - India
john francis 2/05/10