Edward Brennen (also spelled as Edward Brennan) was a British philanthropist who lived and died in

Thalassery Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karna ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

Government Brennen College, Thalassery Brennen College is an educational institution in Kerala, affiliated to the Kannur University. It is located in Dharmadam, Thalassery of Kerala state, India. The college evolved from a school established by the English philanthropist Edward Bre ...

and Govt. Brennen Higher Secondary School, Thalassery are named after him.

Biography

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1784, Brennan joined the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

in 1810. He later moved to their subsidiary, Bombay Marine Services. He worked as a cabin boy on a ship. The ship on which he was working crashed during a voyage. Brennan, who was stranded in the sea near Kannur Thalassery, swam to the shores of Thalassery. He then decided to stay in Thalassery. In 1824, Brennan was appointed Master Attendant at the Thalassery Port Office, where he continued for 35 years. The people of Thalassery affectionately called him ''Brennan Saip''. Brennan was thought to be unmarried and had only one adopted son. But later, it is said that Brennan had a daughter on a woman from Thalassery, whose name was Flora, and she was buried in St. Stephen's Church Cemetery in

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

at the age of 16. Brennan died on 2 October 1859. The tomb of Edward Brennan is located near St. John's Church, behind the

Thalassery Fort Tellicherry Fort is in Thalassery (Tellicherry) a town in Kannur District of Kerala state in south India. Thalassery was one of the most important European trading centers of Kerala. The Fort lies on the group of low wooden hill running down to ...

, which was built with a portion of Edward Brennan's livelihood. The tomb inscription reads, "A sterling upright Englishman."

As a philanthropist

In 1846 Brennan formed a trust called the ''Tellechery Poor Fund'' with the vision of helping the poor and orphans. His first share was Rs 3,000 which he had in his hand. Eventually his total savings of Rs. 1,50,000 was paid to the trust. Brennan in his will mentioned to set up a 'free school' in the town of Thalassery to provide free education to all. This school later became Thalassery Brennan College. As mentioned in his will, the free school was founded in 1861 and it was merged with the Basel German Mission School in 1866 and was upgraded to a high school in 1868. In 1871 Basel Mission withdrawn support to the school. The school was converted into a district government school in 1883 and was taken over by the Thalassery Municipality in 1884. Ten years later, the school grew into Brennan College and was the first college between

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

and

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

that time. The school, which was separated from the college in 1949, was shifted to Chirakkara, but in 1958 the college moved to Dharmadam and the school returned to its old building.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brennen, Edward British philanthropists British East India Company people 1784 births 1859 deaths People from London British people in colonial India