People · school head, historian
George Lanning
兰宁Lánníng · 1852–1920
British educator who ran the Shanghai Public School for the Municipal Council and wrote a two-volume history of Shanghai, finished by Samuel Couling.
George Lanning (兰宁, Lánníng) was a British schoolmaster who ran one of the Shanghai Public Settlement’s main schools for foreign children and then wrote its history.
He taught at the Union School (英华书馆) from 1875 and in 1889 became principal of the Shanghai Public School (西童书院). Pupil numbers grew from 54 to 94 the following year, which persuaded the ratepayers to give the school a grant of 1,000 taels; the grant rose to 3,000 taels in 1892. That year the idea was floated of passing the school to the Municipal Council (工部局). The handover came in 1893, in exchange for free places for four children of Freemasons, and Lanning stayed on as principal until 1907.
He wrote several books on China and Shanghai. The best known is his two-volume history of Shanghai, which he had not finished when he died in 1920. Samuel Couling (库龄) completed it and it appeared in 1921.