A FREEMAN WHO WAS A SLAVE
When Robert Bristow,the harbour engineer, met Marie Adelaide Brassey in Madras in 1920,he found a mysterious glow in her eyes.Her eyes 'massaged' him from top to bottom.The special bonding that began from the very first sight resulted in making Cochin a big port.She supported him in every crisis.She was Lady Willingdon,wife of Governor Thomas Freeman Willingdon. Bristow,the architect and builder of the port has recorded this much;it is not known whether it developed into a full blown relationship.It is known that the 'pushy' Lady Willingdon dominated the Governor. |
| Lady Willingdon |
She was the daughter of Willingdon's one time boss,Lord Brassey who was Governor of Victoria,Australia.
Marie(1875-1960)was the youngest daughter of him by his first marriage.Much popular as a political hostess, at 15,she began helping her father to receive guests in Park Lane,before the arrival of her stepmother.She married Thomas Freeman,who was aide-De-camp to her father on July 20,1892.She was 17.
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| Lord and Lady Willingdon |
Major Thomas Freeman,later Lord Willingdon(1866-1941)was the son of Frederick Freeman Thomas by Mabel Brand,daughter of the First Viscount of Hampden.He had his education in Eton and Cambridge.He was in Sussex Artillery for 15 years,after which he became aide-De- camp to Lord Thomas Brassey,First Earl of Brassey in 1895.He accompanied Lord Brassey to Australia.In 1900 he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party candidate.
He was raised to peerage.He became Baron Willingdon of Ratton,thereafter Viscount,Earl and finally the first Marquess of Willingdon.Marie became Marchioness.He was Junior Lord of Treasury during 1905-1912.He began as Lord-in waiting to King GeorgeV,in 1913.From then on he was in
the Raj service for 23 years.He became Governor of Bombay,Madras,Governor General of Canada and finally Viceroy of India.It was a rise unequaled.He would have remained a parliamentary backbencher,had it not been for two things: tennis partner to the King and his wife,Marie.
The Willingdons' tenure in Bombay was marred by Marie's tiff with Muhammad Ali Jinnah.At 41,Jinnah had married the 18 year old Parsi girl,Ruttie,daughter of textile magnet,Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit Bart,against the wishes of her parents.Jinnah had accompanied Dinshaw who was his close friend and his family in the summer of 1916 to Darjeeling on a two month holiday.Jinnah was smitten by the vivacious Ruttie who was 16 then. When Jinnah made the proposal,Dinshaw was furious.Ruttie left her home and married Jinnah on April 19,1918.It was his second marriage.
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| Ruttie Jinnah |
Both Jinnah and Ruttie were invited by Lord Willingdon for supper.Ruttie wore a low-cut evening gown for the occasion.Seeing it,Marie asked an ADC to bring Ruttie a wrap.The angry Jinnah retorted that if Ruttie needed a wrap,she would ask for it;he instantly walked out of the Government House with Ruttie.Later when Marie was accorded a civic farewell to Madras,Jinnah agitated against it;the happy citizens built the Jinnah Memorial Hall in the Congress compound in honor of him.
The Willingdons arrived in Madras in 1918.Marie befriended the influential people and two among them,Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer and Raja Annamalai Chettiar became her favorites.Bristow came in 1920 at the orders of her husband to Madras service and was sent to build the Cochin port.
Willingdon is known in Kerala for the deft handling of the situation after the Moplah rebellion of 1921 and the Wagon Tragedy of 19,November 1921.About a hundred Moplahs convicted for rebellion were put in a goods train from Tirur to Coimbatore.46 died of asphyxiation when the train reached Podannur;Six died when they were taken out and two died in hospital.The incident sent a shudder of horror.Willingdon formed a committee and it submitted the enquiry report on 30 August,1922.Based on it he took stern action.He became popular in England for getting Gandhi for the Second Round Table conference.He became unpopular in Cochin after he tried to remove the King Rama Varma(1914-1932)saying he was mentally unstable.
Marie presided over the opening of the Catherine Booth Hospital for Women in Vadassery in Nagercoil in October,1921. She helped the Ladies Recreation Club in Chennai to acquire 150 grounds in Egmore;it was named Willingdon Estate.She supported Sister Subbulakshmi's efforts to rehabilitate widows; Lady Willingdon School and Lady Willingdon Institute of Advanced Study in Education came up.Marie formed the South Indian Nursing Association in 1920;it merged with the Lady Ampthill Nursing Service to become Lady Willingdon Nursing Home.Started in Mount Road, it shifted in 1951 to Pyncrofts Garden Road which Sankara Netralaya bought in 1998 and demolished.When they returned to London,they left behind other memorials too:Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School,Triplicane,Lady Willingdon College,Chennai,Lady Willingdon Hospitals in Manali and Lahore,Willingdon Island in Cochin,Willingdon Club and Lady Willingdon Hostel,YWCA,Mumbai,Lady Willingdon Hall in Ludhiana,Willingdon Crescent ,Willingdon Airfield,Lady Wllingdon Park in Delhi,They renamed Lodhi Gardens in Delhi, Willingdon Gardens and Bristow was asked even to name the newly built dredger,Willingdon!
Marie had an obsession for mauve color.From her husband's Coaches to toilet papers,everything was mauve.The Khaki cows she maintained in her farm and the Khaki dogs she bred in England were of a sombre brown hue.
She harassed her aide-De-camps;we don't know whether it was because she met her husband as one!When an aide-De -camp complained,Lord Willingdon pacified him saying he suffered her all these years,why can't the aid for at least 5 years!
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| Lady Willingdon:Early years |
Marie used to ask for any object she desired as gift-the Baroda royal family buried state jewels at the time of her visit.Her aids used to carry a bag with a wide mouth wherever she went.The bag used to be filled with pearl necklaces.She asked for even Mahogany toilet seats.An incident comes to memory:Saraswathi Giri,wife of former President V V Giri had this habit;she asked the employees of the Ernakulam Guest House once to pack the carpet she saw on the floor!The Willingdons had furnished Rideau Hall,official residence in Canada with rare carpets,screens and objects of art they had collected from India and China.
Willingdon,though Viceroy was denied entry to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club since he was accompanied by Indian friends.So he formed the Willingdon Sports Club.I had recounted a story of the formation of the Lotus Club of Cochin by Gertrude Bristow when she was denied entry to the elite Cochin Club,in my post,Three English Madmen.
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| Willingdons with staff,employees and contractors |
The Willingdons had two sons:Lieutenant Gerard Frederick Freeman Thomas(1893-1914)died in First World War.Inigo Thomas(1899-1979) suceeded Lord Willingdon as Marquess.The Willingdons left India in 1936.They had a delightful Bungalow of Elizabethan period at Ratton,Willingdon,Sussex.Marie was a wonderful gardener there.He suffered her till 1941,when he died.Like all hen pecked husbands he used say:"my wife had been a constant inspiration and encouragement".She died only in 1960.
Reference:
1.Ruttie Jinnah:The Story Told and Untold/Khwaja Razi Haidar/Oxford,2010
2.Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1920-1947,Vol 3,G S Chhabra/Lotus Press,1971
See my Post,THREE ENGLISH MADMEN
