Editing Anna Leonowens (section)

==Early life and family==
Anna was born in [[Ahmednagar]] in the [[Bombay Presidency]] of [[Company rule in India|Company-ruled India]], on 5 November 1831, three months after the death of her father, [[Sergeant]] Thomas Edwards. While she was christened Ann Hariett Emma Edwards, Leonowens later changed ''Ann'' to ''Anna'' and ''Hariett'' to ''Harriette'' and ceased using her third given name (''Emma'').{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=29 }}

Anna Leonowens's mother, Mary Ann Glascott, married Edwards, a [[non-commissioned officer]] in the [[East India Company]]'s Corps of Sappers and Miners, on 15 March 1829 in St James's Church, [[Thane|Tannah]], Bombay Presidency, British India.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=29 }}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bl/bind/005137657/00181&parentid=bl/bind/m/117311/1|title=findmypast.co.uk|website=search.findmypast.co.uk}}</ref> Edwards was from London and a former [[cabinetmaker]].{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=30 }}

Leonowens's maternal grandfather, William Vawdrey (or Vaudrey) Glascott, was an English-born [[commissioned officer]] of the [[Rajputana Rifles|4th Regiment, Bombay Native Infantry]], in the [[Bombay Army]]. Glascott arrived in India in 1810,{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |pp=20, 241 }} and was apparently married in 1815, although his wife's name is not known.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |pp=23–24, 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".{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=23 }} Morgan suggests that she was "most likely ... [[Anglo-Indian]] (of [[mixed race]]) born in India." Anna's mother, Mary Anne Glascott, was born in 1815 or 1816.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=24 }}

For most of her adult life, Anna Leonowens 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]], Wales, and giving her father's [[military rank|rank]] as [[captain (armed forces)|captain]]. By doing so, she protected not only herself but her children, who would have had greater opportunities if their possibly mixed-race heritage remained unknown. Investigations uncovered no record of her birth at Caernarfon, although the town had long claimed her as one of its most famous natives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pheeds.com/Caernarfon.html |title=Caernarfon website |access-date=2009-08-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715073408/http://pheeds.com/Caernarfon.html |archive-date=15 July 2011}}</ref>

A few months after Anna's birth, her mother married Patrick Donohoe, an Irish Catholic corporal of the [[Royal Engineers]]. The family relocated repeatedly within Western India, following Donohoe's regiment. In 1841, they settled in [[Deesa]], Gujarat.{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |p=32 }} Anna attended the Bombay Education Society's girls school in [[Byculla]] (now a neighbourhood of Mumbai) that admitted "mixed-race" children whose military fathers were either dead or absent.{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |pp=13, 42–43 }} Leonowens later said she had attended a British boarding school and had arrived in India, which she described as a "strange land" to her, at the age of 15.{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |p=42 }} Anna's relationship with her stepfather Donohoe was not a happy one, and she later accused him of putting pressure on her to marry a much older man as her sister had done. In 1847, Donohoe was seconded as assistant supervisor of [[public works]] in [[Aden]], [[Yemen]].  It is unclear whether the rest of the family went with him or stayed in India.{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |p=57 }}

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. Anna served as a witness to this marriage.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=51 }}{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |p=62 }} 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]]. 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 was thus his great-aunt.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |pp=51–52 }} Anna Edwards never approved of her sister's marriage, and her self-imposed separation from the family was so complete that, a decade later, when Eliza contacted her during her stay in Siam, she replied by threatening suicide if she persisted.{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |p=226 }}

Leonowens claimed that she had gone on a three-year tour through Egypt and the Middle East with the [[oriental studies|orientalist]] Reverend [[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.{{sfnp |Morgan |2008 |p=52 }}{{sfnp |Habegger |2014 |pp=60–71 }}