Maj. Gen.Claude Martin, www.imbcal.ac.in |
Contantia- Claude Martin's residence,Lucknow,India |
During this period he is estimated to have saved a fortune of about Rs.40,00,000.00. With the money acquired, he built the palace of 'Constantia' and his house named Farhat Baksh, both of which he equipped with luxuries that included a library of some 4,000 volumes written in many languages and a picture gallery that included lots of wonderful paintings.
He died in Lucknow on 13 September 1800. He was unmarried and had no legal heirs to his estate. As per his will, he was buried in the vault prepared for his mortal remains in the basement of the college in Lucknow. The major portion of his savings and estate were left for founding three institutions, one each in Lucknow and Calcutta and his birthplace Lyon, France.
Martin with Antoine and Wombwell,Lucknow,Indiawikipedia.com |
It took 30 years to dispose of the litigation arising out of Claude Martin's will. Finally, as the result of a supreme court decision, La Martinière Schools opened in Calcutta, on 1 March,1836.
postal stamp of La Martinière schools and Martin, India.exclusivecoins.blogspot.com |
The college in Lucknow has two schools on different campuses for boys and girls. La Martinière Boys' College was founded in 1845 and La Martinière Girls' College in 1869. The Boys' College,Lucknow is the only school in the world to have been awarded ''royal battle honors'' for its role in the defense of Lucknow during the mutiny of 1857.
Ref:
Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. A very ingenious man: Claude Martin in early colonial India, 1993, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 241pp.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Martin