The darker side of British justice-C.J.R Le Mesurier – Civil servant extraordinaire sacked for embracing Islam

by Hugh Karunanayake

The Ceylon Civil Service through which the British administered Ceylon over a period of around 150 years had some outstanding personalities who contributed much to researching into the country’s history and understanding its people and culture. Names that readily come to mind are those of William Boyd,John Still, HCP Bell, Henry Marshall, Emerson Tennent, J.P. Lewis, William Twynam et al.

A man who made it his duty to understand the laws, customs and culture of the people he was expected to serve was CJR Le Mesurier, who joined the Civil Service in 1875.Ponnambalam (later Sir) Arunachalama the first Ceylonese Civil Servant to be recruited on the basis of a competitive exam held in London, joined the service in the same year. Le Mesurier epitomised the ideal “civil servant” –one who was there to serve the people as an agent of those who ruled the country.

He took his role even further as one who was required to understand the needs of the people and to act as a catalyst in developing the area within his purview. To this day there is a village in the Nuwara Eliya District bearing his name and is known as Lamasuriyagama – probably the first peasant settlement scheme in the country which he established when serving as Assistant Government Agent of Nuwara Eliya.

In 1893 he brought out a Manual of the Nuwara Eliya District listing out all the resources in the area and placing on record much of its oral history. He was an avid student of local laws and customs and together with Mr TB Panabokke was the joint author of a translation into English of “Niti Nighanduwa” or the “Vocabulary of Law as it existed in the last days of the Kandyan Kingdom” published in 1880.

Le Mesurier was instrumental in opening the doors of bureaucracy to import trout ova from England which were introduced into Lake Gregory. Although the Ceylon Fishing Club and its hatcheries are no more, brown trout originally imported in 1893 are still seen in the streams of Nuwara Eliya and Kandapola.

His DNA may also be seen in some light skinned folk some with blue eyes carrying the name Lamasuriya living in the Nuwara Eliya area. He lived and served in times where many of the colonial bureaucrats especially those who loved the colony and its peoples took their admiration a step further by going to bed with native women.

It is on record that John Still, HCP Bell, Emerson Tennent among others had “common law” wives who were left behind with their progeny upon returning back to Britain. Bell of course died in Ceylon. Le Mesurier was very fluent in Sinhalese but this enigmatic character was the subject of snide amusement by his local staff for his inability to correctly pronounce Sinhalese words such as “thuna” or “thiyanawa” which he would pronounce as “tuna” or “tiyanawa” !

Apart from his personal frailties there is no doubt that the man was an exceptional Civil Servant. Possibly his greatest service to the people of Ceylon was his persistence in drawing attention to the adverse impact of the Waste Lands Ordinance and the Paddy Tax on the peasantry.

A man with such devotion to duty would have been marked for a great future in the colonial administration. Instead his reward was dismissal from the Civil Service. Was it his close links with the local community which distanced him from the administration in Colombo? Or was it his enigmatic personality dominated by a fiercely independent natural disposition that undid him? The answer lies elsewhere.

In December 1898 Le Mesurier received a letter from the Government Agent Matara where he was serving as Assistant Government Agent, asking him to state distinctly whether he had embraced the Mohemedan faith and whether he had married a lady according to Mohemedan rites.

Le Mesurier replied inquiring “what concern my religion has to the Ceylon Government” and how it affected his efficiency or character as a public servant, and what concern his domestic affairs were to the Ceylon Government. The Lieut Governor of Ceylon wrote back stating that he was satisfied that Le Mesurier had married a lady by Mohemeddan rites while his legal wife was alive and not divorced, and on instructions received from the Secretary of State dismissed him from the Ceylon Civil Service.

Although Le Mesurier lived in the age of Victorian rectitude his dismissal did not appear to deserve such peremptory action , particularly as he had obtained a divorce from his first wife. He married his first wife Juliette Le Noir in London in 1883 but after eight years of marriage sought a divorce alleging that she had committed adultery. He succeeded with his plaint which was overturned by the higher courts on the technical grounds that the parties concerned were not domiciled in Ceylon.

Juliette then obtained a decree for judicial separation on grounds of cruelty thus preventing Le Mesurier from contracting another legal marriage which seemed to be on the cards as he had struck an alliance with Mary Rivett Carnac described as a “beautiful woman” from an English family long resident in Bengal.

Frustrated by the legal strait jacket he was placed in, Le Mesurier sought relief by embracing Islam which permitted four wives and which was recognised by the legal system in Ceylon. He and Mary went before a Muslim priest and went through the religious formalities, took on the name of Abdul Hamid and Mary assumed the name Kadija. He wore a fez, even attended the mosque in Batticaloa in confirming acceptance of his new found faith.

Official circles were not impressed and even the Burgher managed newspaper. Ceylon Independent, had reported that some colleagues in the Civil Service had “laughed incredulously” at the turn of events. The government however did not see it as a laughing matter and dismissed him from service.

Le Mesurier was not a man to give in to injustice. A man of fiery temperament and although physically small would not refrain from taking on bigger opponents. He raced horses in Colombo, the Kelani Valley and even in Batticaloa. In 1889 when Colombo races were held on the Galle Face Promenade, someone accused Le Mesurier of “pulling” the horse that he rode, whereupon he smacked the accuser in the face.

Colonel TY Wright who commented on this episode described Le Mesurier ” as quite a little chap”. Several decades later when Le Mesurier was practising as a barrister in Western Australia he accused a lawyer of lying in court which resulted in a straight left into the face of Le Mesurier who assumed a boxing stance to deliver a retributory blow when court officials intervened and separated the two who were issued with a stern warning from the bench.

Le Mesurier’s second wife Kadija was a strong willed woman who supported her husband with resolute devotion. Born in Punjab in 1873 as Alice Mary Rivett-Carnac she was 22 years old when she met Le Mesurier who had gone to England on furlough in 1895. She converted to Islam,and assumed the name Kadija after coming to Ceylon in late 1895. She was the daughter of Lt Col Rivett-Carnac Military Secretary to the Governor of Bombay Sir Richard Temple.

At five years of age she was taken to England where she grew up studying, and later in finishing schools in France and Germany. Upon returning to Ceylon as newly weds she accompanied her husband to Matara where he was Assistant Government Agent. After her husband’s dismissal from the Civil Service she accompanied him to Batticaloa where she purchased the Carnac Mills which her husband managed.

A brave and forthright woman she acquired a reputation as a “sportswoman” with extraordinary prowess with a gun. On one occasion she saved her husband’s life by shooting down n elephant who charged him and earned the dubious distinction of being the first woman ever to have killed an elephant in Ceylon. Two feet of the shot elephant were taxidermied and lined with tamarind wood to adorn her London home in later years.

Meanwhile the government enraged by the apparent impunity of the Le Mesuriers was bent on running them to the ground.The establishment apparently enagaged the services of minor officials to harass Le Mesurier who after his dismissal from government service was involved in a a series of speculative transactions concerning both private and crown land.

On one occasion Le Mesurier is said to have been subject to a savage and unprovoked attack by village headmen who were later convicted and jailed. He was apparently saved by Kadija who appeared on the scene with a gun and shot at the headman who escaped unscathed. Fortunately too for him, else the unfortunate man may have ended later as a stuffed trophy to adorn her reception room in London!

Mrs Le Mesurier’s health broke down as a result of the continuous harassment and she proceeded to England to recuperate. After she recovered her health she became a frequent visitor to the House of Commons and her persuasive appeals won much sympathy for her cause. In late 1899 her husband whose health too had suffered in the face of the official onslaught, had suffered a cancer in the colon which however he overcame miraculously.

Undaunted he studied law in Engalnd and was admitted to the bar in 1902 by which time his marriage had failed and his ostensible interest in Islam had waned too! He migrated to Western Australia in 1904, married his third wife Rachel Mallam and practised as a barrister until his death in December 1931.

Alice Rivett Carnac aka Kadija lived in England until 1957 when she died at the age of 84. She too had married again -to Francis Toyne by whom she had a son.

Le Mesurier’s legacy in Ceylon lasted more than the illegitimate offspring he left behind in Lamasuriyagama. The reliance on old Dutch Land registers to establish title to land in Ceylon was introduced after Le Mesurier initiated several land actions against the government.

This compelled the government to preserve and protect all Dutch Land Registers which survive in the Government archives to this day. A vengeful government apparently responded to Le Mesurier’s various initiatives by removing his name from the annual Civil Lists that were published by the government. His name ceased to appear in any Civil List published after 1895! A rather inglorious aspect of British rule in 19th Century Ceylon.