Louis T. Leonowens
Louis Thomas Gunnis Leonowens (25 October 1856 – 17 February 1919) was a Briton who served as an officer with the Siamese royal cavalry and founded the trading company that bears his name.
Early life
He was the son of Anna Leonowens of Anna and the King of Siam fame and Thomas Leon Owens, a civilian clerk, whom she married in India in 1849. He was born at Lynton near Port Gregory in Western Australia[1] and went to Siam (now Thailand) with his mother in 1862[2].
He was raised in the Siamese royal palace and was schooled by his mother alongside the royal children until he returned to Europe to complete his education. In 1881, at the age of 27, he returned to Siam and was granted a commission of Captain in the Royal Cavalry by King Chulalongkorn[2].
Career
Leonowens in 1884 left the military and entered the teak trade. He went on in 1905 to found the Louis Thomas Leonowens Company which became Louis T. Leonowens Ltd, an international trading company. This company remains a leading exporter of Malayan hardwoods and an importer of building materials and general merchandise.[3]
Leonowens became less involved in the operations of the company after 1906 and left Siam for the last time in 1913.[2]
Personal life
Louis Thomas Gunnis Leonowens was married to:
- Caroline Knox (1856/7–1893), the younger daughter of Sir Thomas George Knox, British consul-general in Siam from 1824–1887, and his wife, Prang Yen, a Siamese noblewoman.[4][5][6][7][8][9] They had one son, Thomas ("George") Knox Leonowens (1888-1953) and a daughter, Anna Harriett Leonowens (born 1890, Mrs Richard Monahan).[10]
- Reta May (1880–1936) married Leonowens in 1900. They had no children.[11][12]
Later life
Leonowens died in 1919 during the global influenza pandemic. He is buried, with his second wife, in Brompton Cemetery, London.[13]
Movie portrayal
In the 1956 movie musical, The King and I, starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, the boy Louis was played by Rex Thompson (レックス・トンプソン). In the 1999 movie Anna and the King, starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat, Tom Felton played the young Louis.
Notes
- ^ Register of Births, Western Australia, no. 3469, 1856
- ^ a b c Louis T. Leonowens Ltd
- ^ The Times (16 September, 1963); pg. x, col. A.
- ^ Findagrave
- ^ Bradford Smith, "It Was Love, Love, Love", The New York Times, 16 September 1962
- ^ R. J. Minney, Fanny and the Regent of Siam (The World Publishing Company, 1962
- ^ "A Dark Tragedy in Siam: The Execution of Pra Preecah—A Native Nobleman Beheaded for Marrying A British Officer's Daughter—How a Cruel King Can Retain A Grudge For Years—Medieval Horrors in the Nineteenth Century", The New York Times, 12 April 1880
- ^ W. S. Bristowe, Louis and the King of Siam (Chatto and Windus, 1976)
- ^ Alec Waugh, Bangkok: Story of a City (W. H. Allen, 1970), pages 84-85
- ^ The Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections: Margaret and Kenneth Landon Papers, 1824-2000, http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/ARCSC/collects/sc38/container.php
- ^ Findagrave
- ^ W. S. Bristowe, Louis and the King of Siam (Chatto and Windus, 1976), page 101
- ^ Findagrave
External links
| Persondata |
| Name |
Leonowens, Louis T. |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
25 October 1856 |
| Place of birth |
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| Date of death |
17 February 1919 |
| Place of death |
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