The Anglo-Indians are a community in India, who are descendants of Britishers who came to to India during British rule.and married Indian ladies. Their tiny number in India was diminished considerably when many of them migrated to England, Canada and Australia after India became independent in 1947.
However, those who remained in India made an outstanding contribution to the country in various fields, particularly in the field of education where they became teachers and principals in English medium schools which imparted the best education to Indian children, who are beholden to them for what they later became ( including myself ), and who rose to some of the highest positions in the country.
One of such outstanding Anglo-Indian teachers, who later became a Principal of a school, was Mr Winston Gardner, who died a couple of weeks back at the age of 83.
The Gardners living in India today are descendants ( or descendants of close relatives ) of Lord Gardner, a British army general who came to India in the late 18th century, and raised a regiment in the Indian army known as Gardner’s Horse. That regiment is still in the Indian army, though its name has been changed to The Second Lancers.
Lord Gardner on retirement was given an estate in Kasganj, UP as a reward for his distinguished service, and many generations of Gardners lived there. Much of that estate has gone, but there is still a Gardners House standing on it, which is occupied by some family members, including my classmate Julian Gardner, father-in-law of the present Principal of Boys High School, Allahabad, Mr Luke.
I was a student of Boys High School, Allahabad ( known as BHS ) from 1951-61, and my maths teacher in class X and XI ( i.e. in 1960 and 1961 ) was Mr Winston Gardner. He taught us mathematics, in which he was very good, and introduced us to calculus, a new subject to us, which he explained very lucidly, and soon most of my classmates became very good at it.
Apart from being a good maths teacher, Mr Gardner was also a good cricketer, and often played matches with us as an all rounder on the BHS playing field.
He was also a good singer, and with his Elvis Presley type sideburns was a great hit in functions.
Mr Gardner was a maths teacher in BHS from1960 to 1974 when he became Vice Principal of Barnes High School, Devlali, Maharashtra, and then Principal of Laidlaw Memorial High School in Ketti, a town in the Nilgiris district of Ooty in Tamilnadu, where he served till 2011 as Principal i.e. for a record 31 years..
I lost touch with him after I completed my Senior Cambridge examination in 1961, and went to Allahabad University, and later became a lawyer, and then a Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1991. However, I was informed by my friend, Sabir Ansari who had also been a student of Mr Gardner, and later became a medical doctor and a Colonel in the Indian army, that Mr Gardner was a Principal of a school in Tamilnadu.
In 2004 I was appointed Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, and in 2005 went on an inspection of Ootacamund ( Ooty ) District Court. There I learnt that the school ( Laidlaw Memorial School in Ketti, Tamilnadu ) where Mr Gardner was Principal was only 9 kms from Ooty, so I became determined to visit it, and meet my former ‘guru’.
It was a great meeting between a guru and a chela after a gap of about 45 years. Mr Gardner ( I can never call him Winston ) was very happy to meet me, and he immediately organised a meeting of all staff and students of the school in a huge hall, which I was asked to address. In his short introductory speech he said that the whole school was honoured by a visit of the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
I replied that I had come here not as the Chief Justice, but as a humble former student of your Principal, who was one of those who made me what I was today. I also mentioned how he introduced calculus to my class, which was a new subject for us, and therefore required a good teacher like Mr Gardner.
I again lost touch with Mr Gardner thereafter, and later became a Supreme Court judge in 2006 from where I retired in 2011 ( the year in which Mr Gardner too retired as a Principal ).
It was only a couple of weeks back that someone messaged me on facebook of Mr Gardner’s demise. He sent me the phone number of his wife Joan, to whom I spoke. She said a memorial service was being held shortly for Mr Gardner, and requested me to send a message which can be read out in the service, which I did.
May his soul rest in peace.
Here is a group photo of teachers of BHS of 1960, in which Mr Gardner is standing in the centre behind the Principal Mr Dudt
