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Anna Harriette Leonowens (born Anna Harriet Emma Edwards;〔Susan Morgan, ''Bombay Anna: The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of The King and I Governess'', Berkeley, University of California Press, p29〕 5 November 1831 – 19 January 1915) was an Anglo-Indian or Indian-born British〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', pp23–25, 240–242.〕 travel writer, educator, and social activist. She became well-known with the publication of her memoirs, beginning with ''The English Governess at the Siamese Court'' (1870), which chronicled her experiences in Siam (currently called Thailand), as teacher to the children of the Siamese King Mongkut. Leonowen's own account has been fictionalised in Margaret Landon's 1944 best-selling novel ''Anna and the King of Siam'', as well as films and television series based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 hit musical ''The King and I''. During the course of her life, Leonowens also lived in Aden, Australia, Singapore, the United States and Canada. Among other achievements, she co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. ==Early life and family== Leonowens' maternal grandfather, William Vawdrey (or Vaudrey) Glascott, was an English-born commissioned officer of the 4th Regiment, Bombay Native Infantry, in the Bombay Army. Glascott arrived in India in 1810,〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', pp20, 241.〕 and was apparently married in 1815, although his wife's name is not known.〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', pp23–24, 28.〕 According to biographer Susan Morgan, the only viable explanation for the complete and deliberate lack of information regarding Glascott's wife, in official British records, is that she "was not European".〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', p23.〕 Morgan suggests that she was "most likely ... Anglo-Indian (of mixed race) born in India." The Glascotts' first child, Mary Anne Glascott, was born in 1815 or 1816. Mary Glascott married a non-commissioned officer of the Sappers and Miners, Sergeant Thomas Edwards on 15 March 1829 in Tannah.〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', p29.〕 Edwards was from London and a former cabinetmaker.〔Morgan, ''Bombay Anna'', p30.〕 Tom Edwards's second daughter was born in Ahmednagar district, India, on 5 November 1831, but her father had died three months earlier. While she was christened Anna Harriet Emma Edwards, Leonowens later changed Harriet to "Harriette" and ceased using her third given name (Emma).〔 For most of her adult life, Anna Edwards had no contact with her family and took pains to disguise her origins by claiming that she had been born with the surname "Crawford" in Caernarfon and giving her father's rank as Captain. By doing so, she protected not only herself but her children, who would have had greater opportunities if their mixed-race heritage remained unknown. Investigations uncovered no record of her birth at Caernarfon, news which came as a shock to the town that had long claimed her as one of its most famous natives. On 24 April 1845, Anna's 15-year-old sister, Eliza Julia Edwards, married James Millard, a Sergeant-Major with the 4th Troop Artillery, Indian Army in Deesa, Banaskantha, Gujarat, India. Their daughter, Eliza Sarah Millard, born in 1848 in India, married on 7 October 1864 in Surat, Gujarat, India. Her husband was Edward John Pratt, a 38-year-old British civil servant who had served in the Indian Navy. One of their sons, William Henry Pratt, born 23 November 1887 upon their return to London, was better known by his stage name of Boris Karloff. Anna Edwards never approved of her sister's marriage, and her self-imposed separation from the family was so complete that, decades later, when a Pratt relative contacted her, she replied by threatening suicide if he persisted. Mary Edwards later married an Irish soldier, Patrick Donohoe of the Royal Engineers. Anna Edwards's relationship with her stepfather Donohoe was not a happy one, and she later accused him of putting pressure on her, like her sister (with whom she also fell out), to marry a much older man. In 1847, Donohoe was seconded as assistant supervisor of public works in Aden. If the rest of the family went with him or stayed in India is unsure. Anna Leonowens later claimed that she had gone on a three-year tour through Egypt and the Middle East with the orientalist Revd. George Percy Badger and his wife. However, recent biographies consider this episode to be fictitious. Anna may have met Badger in India and listened to or read reports about his travels. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anna Leonowens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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