Henry Merrick Lawson

Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Merrick Lawson, (30 January 1859 – 2 November 1933) was a British Army general during the First World War.

Military career Educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, Lawson was commissioned into the Royal Engineers of the British Army in December 1877.

He took part in the Suakin Expedition and Nile Expedition in 1884 and served in the Egyptian Army during the Mahdist War in 1898. He became Director of Movements and Quarterings at the War Office in 1904, and Major-General in charge of Administration for Aldershot Command in October 1907.

Lawson became General Officer Commanding 2nd Division in February 1910 and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and Alderney in 1914. General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in succession to Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Plumer in January 1915 and then went into "Special Service" at the front in 1916. Finally he was Inspector General of Communications for the Italian Expeditionary Force from 1917 to 1918; he retired from the army in 1921.

Political career Lawson was twice a Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party. At the 1922 general election he stood in the constituency of Portsmouth South in a straight fight losing against sitting Conservative MP Herbert Cayzer. Soon after, Cayzer resigned through ill-health and when the new Tory MP Leslie Orme Wilson also resigned on his appointment as Governor of Bombay, Lawson was pressed back into service by the local Liberal Association. His opponent in the by-election, which took place on 13 August 1923, was none other than Herbert Cayzer, health clearly recovered. Lawson's campaign, while not returning him to parliament, reduced the Conservative majority from 5,867 to 2,121.

Family In 1912 Lawson married Lady Wilma, daughter of the 5th Earl of Radnor, and widow of 2nd Earl of Lathom.