|
Edwin Lawrence took a leisurely academic route through the school, and was in our cohort in our JC year of 1959. Classmates remember Eddie as a stout but athletic pupil, always full of good humour and amusing antics. He was an excellent all-round sportsman and became wicket keeper for the 1st XI. He was also a keen surfer and helped the famed South African surfer Shaun Thompson in his early career on Durban waves.
After school Eddie worked as a sales manager for SA Fabrics. Eddie married and had two sons, but the marriage ended in divorce. He went on to several further business ventures, eventually becoming Marketing Manager for a hotel group.
In 1982 Eddie married Beverley Page and they had a daughter, Nicole, in 1983.
Throughout his life Eddie retained his love for the ocean -- as Beverley recalls, "Edwin just loved the sea and would sit for hours on the beach on weekends, just looking at the sea". He also retained those qualities that made him so well-liked at school, a genuine warmth and friendliness, and a willingness to help others in their own troubles.
Unfortunately Edwin passed away due to a heart attack while on a business trip to Welkom on 25 September 1984. He was survived by Beverly, his wife of only three years; his daughter Nicole; and his sons by a previous marriage.
|
Terence Dowdall
I was in 5BA, I think, with Eddie Lawrence. He had "stayed down" from the previous year, and came across as a tough, wisecracking guy with that extra of being just this side of being a "ducktail". He could be entertaining, and I remember listening with reluctant respect to his stories of getting interestd in his girlfriends' mothers, and the sexual adventures he had enjoyed in that fairly inconceivable realm.
Ian Poole
I am hard pressed to think of anything more depressing than the steady trickle of "In Memoriam" postings.
Ah, mortality......aint it a bugger!
There were a few "yummy mummies" around, but I was too gormless to even begin to conceive of doing anything about the daughters, let alone the mothers. RIP Eddie.
Lee Irvine
My memories of Eddie are that he was in fact in 5GB, which was arguably the most notorious class in the school. The likes of Bryan Bosomworth were class members.
Reputation was that they terrorised teachers and that Eddie was a ringleader, once satalking a teacher with flick knife in hand, then at the last minute, turning away and sharpening a pencil in the teacher's waste paper basket.
A talented sportsman who did not achieve his potential, maybe due to the extra mural exploits rumoured elswhere.
Lee.
Terence Dowdall
Haha, Ian - re the depreessing effect of reading obituaries, Churchill when asked what old age was like, said, "It's not so bad when you consider the alternative"! Gosh, Lee, I was never, thank goodness, in a class with "Boezie", so maybe I was in a class with Lawrence in his second Std 9 year, or something like that. I like to think I was always in a "BA" (Biology/Art) class, but maybe the A was the better class in some way - can't remember if there was a 'BB' class. I suppose the only thing I know for sure was that I was in 3BA at the start of DHS in 1957. Eddie Lawrence was a certifiable figure of menace, I guess, in those days at DHS. I wonder what happened to him when he left school, where he worked, if he married, had children, etc.
David Sawers
Terence, after the lofty heights of 3BA, which year end exams I was unable to write because of a timely dose of chicken pox, I spent the rest of my days in BB. That's Biology second grade .I ultimately slipped up with a number of others in my first attempt at Fifth form. Eddie was a great mate of Godfrey Sinclair, we shared many a lunchtime smoke together. I have no idea of what he did with life after school, but as said he was an imposing presence at school. Some of his mates, Neville Caine and Mike Mills being two of them, were still hanging about in 4th form when I got there.
Dave Sawers.
Richard Dold
During our time at DHS, Eddie Lawrence made a sideways move to the Durban Tech., (probably following his nth failure at JC level?) where I imagine that he was more intellectually at home.
A born showman with congenital 'kerb-appeal', I can can well remember his consummate, rabble-rousing 'performances' when he then returned to Skool to watch an occasional rugby match.
He was evidently hard-wired to instinctively and habitually be the centre of attention - and clowning in front of an assembled and captive audience was his wont. Skool was blessed to have such a natural cheerleader, so long as it was at a social occasion, like a rugby match.
I never witnessed his antics in the classroom but I can well imagine that he would have been a veritable nightmare for any teacher!
Leslie Closenberg
I got to know Eddie quite well after we left School. He in fact became a client of mine when I was still in legal practise. He died of a sudden heart attack.
During this period he was leading a normal type of life but always had that naughty type of glint in eyes.
Les Closenberg
Mike Johnston
Lee’s remarks re Eddie stalking the teacher with a pencil (about to be sharpened) are recalled.
And I have an impression that the story (told and re-told) was that the unfortunate individual was student Teacher Colepepper, but stand to be corrected. .
Phew, "tempus fugit"..