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W. C. Bonnerjee
‐
Barrister and one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, who lived in Croydon with his family in the nineteenth century
Other names
Woomes Chunder Bonnerjee
Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
London
SW1V 2EU
United Kingdom 'Kidderpore' House
8 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2BS
United Kingdom
Place of death
Croydon, London
Date of time spent in Britain
1864–8, 1888, 1890–1902 (on and off), 1902–6
About
Woomes Chunder Bonnerjee was the son of Girish Chunder Bonnerjee, an attorney, and his wife, Saraswati Devi. He was educated at the Oriental Seminary and the Hindu School, Calcutta. Concerned at his negligence, his father removed him from school and in 1861 articled him to a local British solicitor. Bonnerjee won a government scholarship to study law in England in 1864 and lodged at 108 Denbigh Street, St George's Road, London. He was admitted as a student of Middle Temple on 19 November 1864 and was called to the Bar on 11 June 1867. He was a founder and Secretary of the London Indian Society, and advocated representative and responsible government in India. He then became a member of the East India Association, which superseded the London Indian Society.
Bonnerjee left England in 1868, and on 12 November was enrolled as an advocate at the Calcutta High Court. He became involved with Calcutta University; he was a member of its syndicate, President of its Faculty of Law (1884) and its first representative on the Legislative Council (1894–5). Bonnerjee was one of the founder-members of the Indian National Congress in December 1885. Proposed by Allan Octavian Hume, he was unanimously elected the first President. In the meantime, Bonnerjee travelled between India and Britain: he sent his 4-year-old son Shelley, and young Nolini and Susie to be educated in Britain in 1874. He and his wife, Hemangini, travelled to and fro, bringing their children to be educated in Britain. In 1888 Hemangini settled permanently in London.
Wealthy from the Bar, in about 1890 Bonnerjee bought a large house, 8 Bedford Park, Croydon, Surrey, which he named 'Kidderpore'. Bonnerjee lived partly in England and partly in India until 1902, thereafter living mostly at Croydon and practising before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He died at his home, 'Kidderpore', on 21 July 1906. Although Hemangini had converted to Christianity, W. C. Bonnerjee had remained a Hindu, but he was given a non-religious burial in England, according to his wishes. Hemangini returned to India after his death and died in 1910. Their descendants live in India and Britain.
Surendranath Banerjea (Bonnerjee defended Banerjea in 1883), Hemangini Bonnerjee (wife), Kamal Krishna Shelley Bonnerjee (son), Noline Héloise Bonnerjee (daughter), Revd Pitt Bonarjee (cousin), Pramilla Bonnerjee (daughter), Ratna Krishna Curran Bonnerjee (son), Susila Anita Bonnerjee (daughter), Romesh Chunder Dutt, Allan Octavian Hume, Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar (daughter), Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji.
Reform of the Hindu Marriage Laws: A Paper Read at a Meeting Held on the 26th of November 1867 and Reprinted from the Journal of the East India Association (London: Macmillan, 1868)
The Hindu Wills Act, Act Xxi of 1870 (Calcutta, 1871)
Indian Politics: A Collection of Essays and Addresses. With an Introduction by W. C. Bonnerjee (Madras: G. A. Natesan & Co., 1898)
Banerji, K. L., Life, Letters and Speeches of W. C. Bonnerjee (Calcutta, 1923)
Bonnerjee, Sadhona, Life of W. C. Bonnerjee: First President of the Indian National Congress (Calcutta: Bhowanipore Press, 1944)
Craig, F. W. S., British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918 (Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services, 1974)
Foster, Joseph, Men-at-the-Bar: A Biographical Hand-List of the Members of the Various Inns of Court, Including Her Majesty's Judges, Etc (London: Reeves & Turner, 1885)
Ghose, Manmatha Nath, W. C. Bonnerjee – the First and Eighth President of Indian National Congress. Snapshots from His Life and His London Letters. Vol. 1...Revised by Manmatha Nath Ghose (Calcutta: Deshbandhu Book Depot, 1944)
Lahiri, Shompa, Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880–1930 (London: Frank Cass, 2000)
Majumdar, Janaki Agnes Penelope, Family History, ed. and introduction by Antoinette Burton (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Mukherjee, Manicklal, W. C. Bonnerjee: Snapshots from His Life and His London Letters (Calcutta: Deshbandhu Book Depot, 1944)
Sanyal, Ram Gopal, A General Biography of Bengali Celebrities, Both Living and Dead (Calcutta: U. C. Chuckerbutty, 1889)
Stearn, Roger T., 'Bonnerjee, Woomes Chunder (1844–1906)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/76337]
Sturgess, H. A. C., Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, from the Fifteenth Century to the Year 1944 (London: Published for the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple by Butterworth, 1949)
Virabhadraravu, Adiraju, Jivita Caritavali = Lives of Great Men: Mudati Bhagamu (Madras: A. Virabhadraravu, 1913)
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
Image credit
Unknown photographer; public domain
