The Julian Johnson Collection

A poignant Great War casualty pair to a ‘Boy Soldier’, Second Lieutenant B. L. Lawrence, Middlesex Regiment, who was killed in action, 1 June 1915, aged just 17. As his father wrote to Lord Kitchener - ‘He went gladly, and I would have had my tongue taken out, rather than have breathed a word to stop him; he has done his duty, and died a noble death, but the fact remains he was only a child, anyhow in years.’

British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. B. L. Lawrence.) BWM double-struck in places, nearly extremely fine (2)
£240-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Julian Johnson Collection.

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Brian Lightly Lawrence was born in 1897, and was the only son of Mr and Mrs A. W. Lawrence of Mountfield, Maidenhead. He was educated at Wellington College, and entered Sandhurst on 29 August 1914. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant, Middlesex Regiment, in January 1915, and served with the 2nd Battalion in the French theatre of war from March 1915 (entitled to a 1914-15 Star). He was killed in action, 1 June 1915, and Boy Soldiers of the Great War by R. van Emden gives the following:

‘Another battalion that took part in the fighting was the 2nd Middlesex. This unit was badly cut up by machine guns firing from a moated farm, several officers being killed. In the aftermath, new drafts were sent out, including four officers, one of whom was seventeen-year-old Second Lieutenant Brian Lawrence. The draft joined the battalion on 20 March [1915] near Laventie, a village west of Lille. Brian had been educated at Wellington College and on the outbreak of war had won a place at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, just days before his seventeenth birthday. He had been commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment in early January 1915.

Barely ten weeks after arriving in France, he was dead, killed as he stood outside his dugout by a stray bullet glancing off the top of a sandbag. His parents, Arthur and Agnes Lawrence of Maidenhead, were informed of their son’s death a few days later. The news was sent by telegram and included the express sympathy of the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener. Such messages were changed later in 1915, extending the sympathy of the Army Council instead, an alteration probably made to depersonalize the telegram so as to forestall parents writing back - as Brian Lawrence’s father had:

23.6.15
To The Right Hon. The Earl Kitchener of Khartoum K.G.
My Lord

I beg to thank you for your kind expression of sympathy, on the death of my only child Second Lieut. Brian Lightly Lawrence of the Second Batt. Middlesex Regt.

Please pardon me my Lord for saying, I do hope in future you will see your way not to send out such children, for what is 17??

He went gladly, and I would have had my tongue taken out, rather than have breathed a word to stop him; he has done his duty, and died a noble death, but the fact remains he was only a child, anyhow in years.

I have the honour to remain

Your Lordship’s obedient servant
Arthur L. Lawrence’

Second Lieutenant Lawrence was buried in Rue Tilleloy, 400 yards south-west of Fauquissart, the grave was subsequently lost. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.

Sold with a large quantity of copied research.