From battlegrounds to Buckingham Palace
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After his 12-month tour, Col Lawrence returned home to Val. They lived in Canberra, then Queensland and Fort Knox in Kentucky.
“I was an exchange instructor at the US Army Armor School,” he recalls. “It was a very challenging thing because at that stage the Vietnam War was really hitting the maximum amount of people from America and they were also getting a hard time here, and they were about to cut back.”
It was there Col Lawrence says he trained young American captains in tactics.
“They had these ‘How to Fight’ manuals that we were teaching and I felt quite strange with my accent and my knowledge of American tactics.
“There were 400, in fact two lots of 400 captains at these lectures and if you look at 200 people you feel rather insignificant,” he says.
After returning from the US, Col Lawrence was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was posted to the Army Apprentices School in 1981 where he later become Commandant.
Just three years later he was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to the school, but one of his most interesting military posts was still to come.
Modestly, Col Lawrence explains that after he’d been posted to London in 1987 for a more diplomatic mission, as the Australia Military Attaché, he was soon promoted to the unusual but prestigious position of Extra Gentleman Usher for the royal family. something in common with.
“That was a really exciting time because the actual staff were all very proper and strict and you’ve got to do everything properly,” he laughs.
“The balls were quite fascinating because you have to be very careful where people are directed to, for diplomatic reasons.”
Col Lawrence says he was often allocated Prince Michael of Kent, and Katherine, Duchess of Kent but his favourite was Princess Diana. motors. They used to go and knock off all the cars and strip them down and then paint all this stuff up on the roof.
“But you saw these young boys transform into men, you got to see what they made of their lives.”
Col Lawrence says he has kept in touch with quite a few of the students and was proud to say some had become very senior ranking officers.
“One of them is a Major General, but they really have all done brilliantly,” he smiles.