Salvador John Gonsalves
A Brief History of Gonsalves & Gonsalves, Ooty
Salvador John Gonsalves, founding partner of Gonsalves & Gonsalves, was born on 11/4/1875 in Mangalore on the west coast of South India. After completing his Bachelor of Law in Madras Law College in 1901, he shifted to Ooty in the Nilgiri Mountains to start a law practice. This was motivated by medical advice to shift to the hills due to malaria in the plains and reports that there were no Indian lawyers in Ooty. At that time, Ooty had only one firm of British lawyers, King & Partridge. As the Nilgiri Mountain Railway extended only up to Coonoor in 1901, Salvador made his first journey to Ooty by bullock cart from Mettupalayam.
A few years later, Salvador's younger brother, Lawrence (born 2/7/1887) joined him in Ooty to form the law firm Gonsalves & Gonsalves (known popularly as G&G) housed in Law Chambers near the Collector's Office. The law firm dealt primarily with property matters. Their clients were the mostly British owners of houses and tea estates, and Indian businessmen.
Over the years, Salvador acquired property in Ooty and the Periashola Tea Estate in Ochterlony Valley about 16 km from Gudalur. He was a prominent citizen of the town, being a member of the Ootacamund Municipal Council for 35 years. He was active in the Nilgiri Library, Friend-in-Need Society, Lawley Institute, etc. He was President of the Indian Christian Association and served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council for 5 years in the 1940s, as one of three Indian Christian representatives.
Lawrence focused on legal work. He was fond of tennis, playing regularly in the Lawley Institute and sometimes mixed games in the Ladies Club.
Salvador's son, Allan John Gonsalves (born 27/12/1916) became the third partner ca. 1944. Salvador passed away on 24/11/1948 aged 73. Like his father, Allan ran the Periashola Tea Estate and was a prominent citizen in addition to his legal work. In 1963, he was one of the founders of the first tea broking firm in the Nilgiris, Sohrab Adheshir Brokers Company (SABC), Coonoor. He was President of the Lawley Institute and the Rotary Club. Allan's wife Rani founded The Ootacamund School educating poorer children. She was a founding member of the Culture Club, Ooty. They had three sons Richard, Kenneth and Timothy, and a daughter Maureen.
In 1965, J. Prabhu was made a partner. The first and only partner from outside the family, Prabhu was a Christian from Mangalore. Lawrence was active in the firm until his death on 5/5/1971 aged 83. Allan's son, Kenneth Gonsalves became a partner ca. 1986. Allan passed away in 1990. Kenneth's interests shifted towards the computer profession until he passed away in 2012. This marked the end of the century-long history of the pioneering firm Gonsalves & Gonsalves, Law Chambers, Ooty.
Richard emigrated to the US where he was a Professor of Physics in the University of Buffalo until his demise in 2018. Maureen shifted to Bangalore where she married Johnny Nereyeth and heads the cultural department at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan. Continuing the tradition of service to the Nilgiris, after his father passed away Kenneth brought computer literacy to the Nilgiri villages and championed the concept of Open Source software. He and his wife Susan Daniel ran Downstown Chronicle, a news magazine that was a voice for Nilgiris citizens. Timothy founded Nilgiri Networks in 1990 to provide opportunities for young people in Ooty to develop telecom and other software for national and global customers. His wife Priscilla started Willy's, Ooty's first coffee pub, with an attached lending library, Bookworm.
Richard with Danica, 2016
Nilgiri Networks lunch at Savoy Hotel, June 2004
Priscilla in Bookworm
Priscilla and Kumar, Willy's Coffee Pub, Ooty
Acknowledgements:
Many of the dates and facts are thanks to the comprehensive genealogy of the family written by Michael Lobo: “Family of the Noronha Sisters”, 96 pp, 2021. Several descendants of Salvador and Lawrence shared their memories with me. Mistakes and omissions are purely due to me.
by Timothy A. Gonsalves (son of Allan Gonsalves)
18th May 2024
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