Page "Anna Leonowens" Paragraph 6

In 1862, Leonowens accepted an offer made by the Siamese consul in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching, to teach the wives and children of Mongkut, King of Siam.

The king wished to give his 39 wives and concubines and 82 children a modern Western education on scientific secular lines, which earlier missionaries ' wives had not provided.

Leonowens sent her daughter Avis to school in England, and took her son Louis with her to Bangkok.

She succeeded Dan Beach Bradley, an American missionary, as teacher to the Siamese court.