In the popular mind Anna Leonowens is probably most often associated with Anna and the King of Siam, the 1946 film based on Margaret Landon's 1944 biography, the book that also served as the basis for the 1951 musical The King and I, filmed in 1956. However, Leonowens was known in her own time not only as the author of two books on Siam but also as a sometime travel writer, supporter of social and feminist causes, cofounder of the Victoria School of Art and Design in Halifax, and lecturer in Sanskrit at McGill University in Montreal.

Born in Carnarvon, Wales, on 5 November 1834, Anna Harriette Crawford (her married name to be Leonowens) remained in Wales for her education when in 1840 her father, Capt. Thomas Maxwell Crawford, was transferred to India, eventually to become aide-de-camp to William Hay MacNaughton, commander of the British forces sent to control Sikh unrest. A year later her...