Anthony Lawrence

Anthony John Lawrence, OBE (12 August 1912 – 24 September 2013) was a British journalist. His most high-profile role was that of chief Far East correspondent for BBC Radio during the Vietnam War. He died in Hong Kong on 24 September 2013.

Early life Lawrence was born in Wimbledon, London, the fourth of five children. Lawrence described his primary school as being "in a rough neighbourhood" where the headmaster periodically had to make appeals for shoes to give some of the poorer pupils, who would otherwise come to school barefoot. He later attended King's College School. Lawrence believed journalism was in his blood, with an uncle and his grandfather both having worked in newspapers, and following on secondary school he worked for a variety of London weeklies.

He served in World War II in the British Army, in the Royal Artillery in Europe, where he achieved the rank of captain. He was later assigned to the British Forces' Information Control Unit in Germany. He was posted to Singapore as the BBC Radio Far East correspondent in 1956, and was then transferred to Hong Kong in 1958. The Radio Times referred to him as "a BBC man of the old school: courtly, cultured, gentle, polite.” He remained with the service until 1973, and continued after this with the occasional contribution, including BBC World Service live coverage of the ceremony of Hong Kong's transition from British to Chinese rule in 1997. He was interviewed in 1972 on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs by Roy Plomley. Toward the end of his news career he wrote his first book, Foreign Correspondent.

Family life Lawrence lost his first wife, Sylvia, who was expecting their first child, while she was in a hostel for expectant mothers. This was during the Second World War, and the building received a direct hit in an air raid; His son Alex, aged 8 at the time of his move to Singapore, was "bribed" to accept the transition with the offer of a pet monkey. On their move to Hong Kong, Alex had to be sent to boarding school in England. Lawrence outlived both his wife Irmgard (who died in 2001) and son Alex. ], where he became chairman in 1988, and which has a refuge named after him.

Works Foreign Correspondent, autobiography published by George Allen & Unwin, 1972, "China: in Farbe”, Sudwest, 1980, ”The Love of China”, Crown, 1980, China: the long march, published by Knapp, 1986, (with Brian Brake) ”The Fragrant Chinese”, published by The Chinese University Press, 1993.