FORMER STAFF OBITUARIES
IAN LAWRENCE 1933-2024
Ian Bernard Lawrence, who died at the age of 90 in July 2024, was of the generation who went up to university after completing national service. He arrived at Sevenoaks in 1958 straight from Queens’ College, Cambridge, with more experience of life than the typical university leaver.
Born in Raynes Park in 1933, Ian stayed in London during the Second World War, and recalled the sight of Spitfires and other planes overhead as he celebrated his seventh birthday on Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940. He went to Raynes Park County Grammar School, attending the Trinity College of Music Junior Department on Saturdays.
After two years’ national service with the RAF at the Worth Matravers radio station, his place at Cambridge was delayed by another year( and the demands of the Latin entrance paper), time gainfully spent working at the Merton and Morden Central Library. He finally arrived at Queens’ in 1955, where he took Part I in Music and Part II in Geography. He threw himself into college and university music, becoming vice-president of the college’ s music society. He conducted the college choir, and in giving a solo to one Margaret Jones from Homerton College, he met his future wife.
On graduating, Ian joined the staff of Sevenoaks School, teaching Music, English and Geography from 1958 to 1962. Music clearly flourished at Sevenoaks in this period, and the Headmaster, Kim Taylor, remembered Ian working particularly well with the Head of Music, Brian Townend:‘ For Brian,“ real” music ended with Purcell and then started again in the 20th century … between whiles, you had show-off, virtuoso stuff. He wouldn’ t touch it. He cheerfully helped choose Ian Lawrence, who would.’
Peter Young, in his A History of Music at Sevenoaks School, writes:‘ This happy collaboration between Townend and Lawrence is reflected in the choice of programme items for the next few Summer Concerts, with the following titles:‘ Opus Dei’( 1959),‘ Breakaway’( 1960) and‘ Five for a Shilling’( 1961).’
After four years at Sevenoaks, Ian then made the move from secondary to tertiary education, taking a position at Maria Grey College near Twickenham( which later became the West London Institute of Higher Education), starting as a lecturer and rising to be the Head of Education. He worked there for 21 years until taking early retirement in 1987.
In the meantime, he gained his PhD from Leeds University in 1975, and his thesis was published as a book: Composers and the Nature of Music Education. This is just one of Ian’ s many entries in the British Library Catalogue, which range from music to education to local history. Interest in the last was sparked by the move from London to Fontmell Magna, the ancestral village he had discovered during his national service in Dorset, where he chaired the Parish Council and founded the village archive society.
A second retirement brought him back to Cambridge, attracted by the university library, the musical life of the city, and a growing number of grandchildren. In 2008 Ian and Margaret celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Queens’ College, and he continued to enjoy visiting Queens’, especially for annual garden parties, attending his last one shortly before his 90th birthday in 2023.
He is survived by his wife Margaret and by their three sons, Stewart, Andrew and Christopher, and five grandchildren.
Christopher Lawrence( son)
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