He battled the Vietcong in Vietnam and led conversations at London’s royal garden parties. But for Colonel David Lawrence the greatest career satisfaction was right here in Victoria.

from his 49 years of military service, his time serving at the Bonegilla Army Apprentice School in regional Victoria as Commandant (headmaster) stood out to him the most.

“The apprentices were magnificent and they took a great deal of pride in what they were doing.” he says.

“I really found that it was one of the most rewarding times, particularly at their graduations.”

Col Lawrence is now retired and lives in a beautiful beachside home with walls that are filled with pictures that paint a very colourful life as husband, father and military man.

After graduating from Melbourne Grammar School, Col Lawrence says he started his military career at the Portsea Officer Cadet School and graduated just 12 months later in 1959.

“It was very successful and an interesting 12 months,” he chuckles.

Sitting near Lawrence is his wife and former mayor of Queenscliffe Val Lawrence, who explains they hadn’t met at this stage.

“His cousin introduced us at a party — we met in 1960 and were married in 1961,” she says.

“Yes, she had an excuse to do everything except to have anything to do with me,” Col Lawrence laughs.

“But that was only in the beginning — it was quite an exciting romance.”

Following this romance, from 1968 to 1969 Col Lawrence served in the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in South Vietnam as a Cavalry Troup Commander.

“I had 13 M113 armoured personnel carriers plus the light aid detachment there and we had two mortars,” he says.

“They’re armoured personnel carriers that are built for shelling people at a distance.”

He explains that the Vietcong would dig where they knew vehicles would be driving and plant bombs as booby traps.

“The tanks were bombed so easily that it was a challenge to say the least. The jungle was so thick too,” he cringes.

“There were lots of bitey things around too, and not the nice kind. You hit a tree and it sent all these ants down and they’re not friendly ants either, they used to get quite upset and the bite would be all over you.

“The biggest worry was of course the mining of the passes, the land mines. We had a lot of misses but a lot of hits too, we lost quite a few men, a lot more with blown off feet and that sort of thing.

“Fortunately we overcame a lot of it because our wonderful technicians designed armour to go underneath the vehicles so it would blow up but it wouldn’t blow your legs off anymore,” he says.

“It was a really worrying time for everyone, when you heard that bang go off and the smoke, it was quite frightening.” continued on page 32 >