A Tribute by Brian Hewes

Lawrence died peacefully at home on the morning of Wednesday 13th August 2008. He was 87 years old. The Princess Alice Hospice representative had hoped to find him a place at the hospice that very day.

He had lost almost all his sight about five years ago suffering from macular degeneration disease, which severely influenced his enjoyment of life. However, never a man to let things beat him, he bought magnification equipment to enable him to continue to use his computer but, regrettably, this only helped for a while. He pursued any means to ease his difficulties and enjoyed RNIB audio books and especially listening to Spelthorne Talking News tapes. His last device was to have a description on sound of what was going on whilst watching television. He could do the crossword in the daily paper only with help from Pauline to read out the clues.

Career

RAF Navigator

Lawrence spent his war-time as a Navigator in Lancasters. He gained the rank of Flight Sergeant. We were once walking in Cologne when I asked him if he had ever been there before. His response was “No, but I have been over it”! On returning from a raid when the barometric pressure had dropped significantly, unbeknown to the crew, the aircraft crashed in Suffolk and he was dragged from the burning plane by a Special Policeman who was subsequently given a civic award. Years later in his retirement and following a visit to the Met Office where he discovered the reason for the crash [altimeter reading wrong] he made enquiries of the Editor of the local Newspaper in Suffolk if the crash had been recorded. The answer was "no", but the Editor asked the readership if any reader recalled the event. This produced a number of responses leading to Lawrence and Pauline visiting the crash site and being presented with a piece of the plastic radar dome of his aircraft mounted on a plinth.

On one Rotary evening when members were recollecting their war experiences he took his turn and related: “I was totally ******* scared whilst on operations all the time”. This is the only time I ever heard him swear.

Rotary

He joined our Rotary Club in 1981 and was President in 1986/1987. He was a Paul Harris Fellow and received a Presidents Award. He undertook many roles and was a Trustee of the Benevolent Fund. He had been our attendance officer maintaining statistics and booking our meals and the 'examiner of our accounts'.

He will be remembered for expressing his well-considered points of view at meetings, particularly Business Meetings. He would follow up and pursue matters which other members sometimes wished to forget. He was the only member who knew how to erect the huge Scout Marquee for fireworks nights!

In many ways he lived for his enjoyment of Rotary and he and Pauline attended many District Conferences and enjoyed group weekend visits to France and Belgium. Never a man to go to the formal night of Conference preferring to organise a visit to a local theatre or event and having no difficulty in gaining support from his fellows and their wives.

In 1997 whilst a Committee Chairman he suggested and helped form the Probus Club of Shepperton. He was the club’s first Secretary and remained so until 2006.

Family

Daughters Carolyn and Susan and grandchildren and two great grand children. Lawrence actually managed to visit East Grinstead to see his latest great grandson on one of his last outings.

Dogs

Pauline and Lawrence liked to have a dog around the house. Over their years in Lindsay Drive they had five. The one best known, perhaps, was their last an Alsatian called Bess. She figured in a film Lawrence took of our Rotary team competing in a Rotaract pancake race event!

Voluntary Activities

For many years Lawrence, with Pauline, was involved with Age Concern and they were prime movers in setting up the Day Centre in Sunbury and then the Greeno Centre in Shepperton. Lawrence was Treasurer for Age Concern and a member of its Management Committee.

Lawrence proudly accompanied Pauline to Buckingham Palace when she received the MBE for services to Age Concern and the Red Cross.

Lawrence served as a local councillor for a time and after retiring from local government he was a great writer of letters to the press venting his frustration at some of the more controversial or absurd proposals affecting the life of local people.

The Pub

With “The Bells” only 100 yards across the road Lawrence enjoyed a lager. The problem was always in getting to the bar to pay before he did!

Holidays

Pauline and he much enjoyed visits to Switzerland in their later years. Nearer to home they had a love of the Sussex coast where in earlier years they had caravanned with the girls on the Cornish coast around Looe.

A Lover of Projects

He would see a water wheel at an exhibition which in no time at all would be manufactured in the garage workshop and erected in the pond. He made one contraption of balanced baked bean tins which carried a Union Jack displayed every thirty seconds above the pond parapet. On one occasion to my concern he blew up an electric toaster! He printed tickets for the Club and turned small items on a miniature lathe. In 2001 Lawrence, an avid letter writer, contributed an article to the Historic Gas Times entitled “The Good Old Bad Old Days”. When the curator of the Egham Museum, a retired gas engineer himself, read the article, the name of the author rang a bell. They had been in the same class at school 64 years before. He made contact with Lawrence, they met, and he happened to mention that the museum had purchased a 1947 three-wheeled motorised hand operated invalid tricycle originally made by Stanley Engineering of Egham, This Egham firm at the time were the largest manufacturers of invalid carriages in the country. Unfortunately when purchased it was completely in bits, and had remained in their attic store for 10 years, as it had proved impossible to find someone to reassemble the vehicle, or only by a professional firm, at great cost.

Being Lawrence he offered to take on the project, with one proviso, when finished it would go on display in the museum. He had two Rotary friends in his mind to help, and the three of them completed the restoration in just less than two years, working two mornings a week, in the hot-in-summer, cold-in-winter, attic store of the museum, Away from the Museum they made new parts when the originals had been lost, and also researched the Tricycles’ history. The final problem was getting it down two flights of stairs from the attic to the exhibition space. This was accomplished with the help of some more Rotarians from the Shepperton Club. The Argson “Victory” Invalid Tricycle registration No JLN696 is now on permanent display in the Egham museum.

Finally — the Man

A gentleman with a love of life and a wonderful sense of humour. On first meeting he appeared serious but this impression was soon dispelled. Above all he was great fun and in his element when playing cards with friends. We played innumerable games of a game called UNO [wonderful for the simple mind!] His problem was in differentiating between green cards and blue cards. This just brought more hilarity to the occasion. He coupled his humour to a gift of timing.

Oh such lovely memories!

(Compiled with the help of Peter and Ann Dethick and Ken Howe.)

Brian Hewes