Louis Leonowens

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Louis Leonowens

Louis Thomas Gunnis Leonowens (born October 25, 1856 in Lynton , Mid West Region , Western Australia , † February 17, 1919 in London ) was a British officer in the Siamese cavalry and teak dealer. He founded the still active Leonowens Trading Company in Thailand .

life and career

Louis Leonowens was the son of Thomas Leonowens, who at the time of his birth was a civil servant at the police station of the remote Lynton convict colony in western Australia, and Anna Leonowens . He had an older sister, Avis. One year after Louis was born, the family moved to Singapore , another year to Penang (then part of the British Straits Settlements , now Malaysia). Before he was three years old, his father died. After returning to Singapore, his mother worked as a teacher before she received an offer from the Siamese King Mongkut (Rama IV) in 1862 to teach his children English. Louis went to Bangkok with his mother, while his sister Avis went to boarding school in England.

Leonowens was raised at the royal court in Bangkok and tutored by his mother along with the princes and princesses. In July 1862 mother and son left Siam, after which he attended the Kingstown School near Dublin (Ireland). He lived with his mother in the USA until 1874. Then he fled from his creditors, heavily in debt.

He went to Siam again in 1881 and received a position as captain in the royal cavalry from King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) . Leonowens married Caroline Knox in 1884, the daughter of the British Consul General in Siam, Sir Thomas George Knox , and his Siamese wife. He then ended his military career and worked as an agent for the Borneo Company in Raheng (Tak) in the teak trade . In 1891 he acquired the Hotel Oriental in Bangkok, which he sold again in 1898. Caroline died in 1893 at the age of 36. Leonowens then traveled to London, where he saw his mother again after 19 years of separation. He placed his children, two and five years old, into her care and she took them to Canada.

The following year he married Reta Maclaughlan for the second time. In 1905 he founded the Louis Thomas Leonowens Company , which became Louis T. Leonowens Ltd. was, an international trading company that still bears his name today and exports Malay precious wood and imports building materials. He visited his mother and children in Canada in 1904 and 1906/07. After 1906 Leonowens was less entrusted with the business of the company and lived alternately in Bangkok and England. In 1913 he left Siam for good. Louis Leonowens died in London on February 17, 1919 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery , London.

fiction

Louis Leonowens appears as a character in several films.

literature

  • WS Bristowe : Louis and the King of Siam. Thai-American Publishers, New York 1976.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Habegger: Masked. The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2014, p. 304.
  2. ^ A b c Susan Morgan: Bombay Anna. The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of The King and I Governess. University of California Press, Berkeley 2008, p. 198.
  3. ↑ Malcolm Falkus: Early British business in Thailand. In: RPT Davenport-Hines, Geoffrey Jones: British Business in Asia Since 1860. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, pp. 117–156, at p. 138.
  4. ↑ Malcolm Falkus: Early British business in Thailand. In: RPT Davenport-Hines, Geoffrey Jones: British Business in Asia Since 1860. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, pp. 117–156, at p. 156.
  5. ↑ Susan Morgan: Bombay Anna. The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of The King and I Governess. University of California Press, Berkeley 2008, p. 204.
personal data
SURNAME Leonowens, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leonowens, Louis Thomas Gunnis (full name); Leonowens, Lewis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Lynton , Western Australia, Australia
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1919
Place of death London