NAM.1982-08-145-1

Stringer Lawrence Esqr Major General and Commander in Chief in the East Indies, 1761. Mezzotint by Richard Houston after Sir Joshua Reynolds, printed for John Bowles and Son at the Black Horse, Cornhill, London, 1761. A native of Hereford, Stringer Lawrence (1697-1775) was appointed an ensign in Gen Jasper Clayton's Regiment of Foot in 1727. In 1748 the 50 year old veteran of Culloden (1746) was sent out to India with a commission as Major to command all the company's troops in the East Indies. He formed the Madras companies of European Foot into a battalion, and in the years of undeclared war between Britain and France in India waged a number of hard fought campaigns. Renowned as 'The Father of the Indian Army', he was a patron of the young Robert Clive who later repaid the debt by giving Lawrence financial assistance. By 1759, when he was obliged by the state of his health to leave India, Lawrence had been advanced to the rank of major general 'in the East Indies only'. Lawrence sat for Reynold in 1761, the year this print was published.