Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

Harry Lawrence, 1916-2005

Obituary

A good number of people were present at the thanksgiving service for Harry’s life at West Wickham Baptist Church on October 25.

He was born in Camberwell, South London, and brought up in Norbury. His maternal grandfather went to live with the Lawrence family when Harry was a boy, and Harry shared a bedroom with him. Seeing his grandfather kneeling by his bedside to pray made a lasting impression on Harry, who often said he would never know how much he owed to those prayers.

Harry and his wife, Hope, whom he met at Mount Zion Baptist Chapel in Watford, were married there in 1945, and moved near Croydon in 1946, where he and his family started attending Thornton Heath Evangelical Free Church. Harry continued with Sunday school teaching, and then became a deacon and, later, the church secretary. All four children were baptised at the church and both daughters married there.

He was a much-valued helper in the office in the early days of Evangelicals Now, and also served as an examiner for Strict Baptist Sunday Schools’ Scripture examinations.

Valued helper

After retirement, he and Hope moved to West Wickham. He was a true scholar and used his literary gifts in the service of the Lord. He wrote ‘Go Teach’ Sunday school lesson materials, and in his later years abridged and modernised a work by the Puritan John Owen, under the title Christians are for ever. He compiled a short history of the organisation ‘Christmas Letters to Prisoners’ and was their chairman for several years.

Harry had a little stroke in 1999, but it was only in his last two years that his health severely restricted him. Despite deafness and poor mobility, he remained unfailingly gracious to everyone, especially his carers. The family remembers him as bringing out the best in people; acting with fatherly and unconditional love in a way that helped the family to understand more of the Father heart of God. He was an inspiration by his godly example. In 2003 one of his grandchildren, Cathy, wrote to him: ‘You have shown me how good it is to follow Jesus for a lifetime and beyond’.

H.A. Tyler & the Lawrence family