Page 79 - br-june-2021

June 2021
must have been one of the very first modern bathrooms in rural Dorset with a
special oil-fired boiler designed by a Russian. But there was no toilet, by choice.
You were directed to find a spot in the rhododendrons making sure one was out
of sight from the windows. There is an amusing anecdote that Lady Astor, our first
lady M.P., when visiting Clouds Hill asked the obvious question; Lawrence got one
of his Bovington friends to simulate the desired technique on a suitable tree
branch, to much amusement.

Lawrence trained at Oxford as a historian and started life in the east as an
assistant archaeologist. This interest extended to Clouds Hill. He was intrigued by
the nearby site on Throop Heath known as ‘the Dead Woman’s Stone’. He visited
the stone in the company of Henrietta Knowles, wife of Arthur. The stone has a
‘sinking’ in the top which Lawrence postulated would have had a Christian cross
inserted and that the memorial was to a lady charged by the church with heresy.
The stone was removed during World War II to the Ward’s garage in Briantspuddle
and is now sited at the Village cross roads.

There is little doubt Lawrence would have thoroughly investigated the area
making up our present parishes. Also certainly he would have alarmed residents
with his noisy powerful Brough motorcycle. George Croft says his father
remembers Lawrence would sometimes motor down across Throop Heath to
Turnerspuddle of a summer’s evening.
Lawrence retired from the R.A.F. and push-biked over days to Clouds Hill in
February 1935 only to find the press plaguing the place. With the help of Pat
Knowles, Arthur’s son, he escaped by his push-bike to London to request Editors to
call off the hounds. So it was about a month before he could settle to a quiet
existence. Even then people like Henry Williamson, the author, were pursuing him
to attempt to use his political abilities for peace.

On the 15 th May Lawrence, having got the Brough licenced again, motored to
Bovington Post Office to send Williamson a telegram invitation to visit next day.
On the way home he crashed, lapsing in to a coma almost immediately, dying at
th
Bovington Hospital on the 19 May. Following a rushed inquest he was buried at
Moreton in the presence of Winston
Churchill and his wife, Lady Astor and
other notables.
What might Lawrence have
achieved with his friends and
devotee Winston Churchill is
speculation. Nevertheless one of the
most remarkable men did share our
love of this patch of England.
Ivor Bryant, Bladen Valley.

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