administrator treasurer collector
Lawrence was born on 17 September 1870, the son of Sir Trevor Lawrence and Elizabeth Matthew. On 24 February 1908 he married Iris Eyre, daughter of Brigadier-general Eyre Macdonell Stewart Crabbe, Central Bank, and by her had two sons and three daughters. On 22 December 1913 he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy (see Lawrence Baronets).
He was educated at Shrewsbury School and at New College, Oxford.
He then spent five years at Owens College, Manchester, as a demonstrator and then assistant lecturer in chemistry. But in 1902 he took up one of the new posts of junior inspector with the Board of Education and became a senior examiner in 1912. However succeeding in 1913 to his father"s title and estate at Burford, Dorking, freed him to live a public life, especially in the fields of horticulture, medical administration, and the collection of objects of fine art
During the First World War he served for a time as secretary of the Prisoners of War information bureau.
Later he was attached to the Admiralty war staff, and then to the Intelligence branch of the War Office. Lawrence himself was Almoner of the same hospital, and actually died there suddenly while on hospital business.
Lawrence was also a Justice of the Peace for Surrey. He was Treasurer of the Royal Horticultural Society at the time of the building of its new hall in Westminster.
In 2000 this was renamed the Lawrence Hall after him ("not forgetting Sir Trevor Lawrence", according to the Society"s History).
Lawrence had read chemistry at Oxford, and though he only achieved a 3rd class degree he went on to Heidelberg and then Berlin to do a doctorate. He was, among other roles, President of the Alpine Garden Society, an officer of the Ordre du Merite Agricole, a winner of the Victoria Medal of Honour and Vice-President of the Iris Society. Lady Lawrence was also a keen gardener, also winning the Victoria Medal of Honour in her own right.
