Reginald Frederick ("Lawrie") Lawrence

Lawrence, Reginald Frederick ("Lawrie") (1897-1987)

Arachnologist at the South African Museum from 1922-1935, then at Natal Museum from 1935-1986 where he was director until 1948.

In his life time had over 200 papers and books published, only one of which was coauthored! Most of his research was on arachnids and myriapods. Croeser (1988): "[He] was a slight, wiry man with a shy and retiring nature; warm and charming to those he liked but unavailable to those he wished to avoid. ... At work he clearly perceived his objectives and had little time for meeting, bureaucratic haggling and administrative detail. ... A gifted taxonomist with an encyclopaedic, precise memory he was able to simultaneously prepare papers on quite different groups without losing his way or momentum.

Chronology

Date	Age	Event
6 Mar 1897		Born in George.
?		Went to school at St Andrews College, Grahamstown.
?		Started studying at University of Cape Town but interrupted by First World War
1917		Served for two years as an infantry man in France and wounded in 1918.
1922		Graduated from the University of Cape Town.
1922		Joined the staff of the South African Museum where the Director Louis P‚ringuey put him in charge of Arachnida, Myriapoda, spirit preserved insects such as lice, reptiles and Amphibia.
1923		Went by himself on a field trip to Mocambique where the main form of transport was by donkey.
?		Went on the three S.A. Museum Kaokoland and Ovamboland expeditions.
1928		Received PhD at University of Cape Town for thesis on "The Arachnida of South West Africa".
1935		Appointed Director of the Natal Museum.
1948		Resigned as Director of the Natal Museum in order to put more effort into research. Worked in the Museum as a CSIR Research Fellow.
1953		Rejoined the Natal Museum staff as a Professional Scientific Officer.
1986		Retired from the Natal Museum.
9 Oct 1987	90	Died in Pietermaritzburg after a short illness.

Specimens

Specimens collected by Lawrence are located in Iziko SA Museum, (mainly 1922-1959); National Museum, Transvaal Museum and Natal Museum.

References

Herman, C. 1979. The Newsletter of the Spider Club of Southern Africa 14:2-4, republished in American Arachnology 21:13-15;

Croeser, P. 1988. Spider Club News 3(3):2-9.

Croeser, P. Annals of the Natal Museum 16: i-ix.

Croeser, P. 1992. Transactions of the Royal Society of Southern Africa 1992, 48(2): 192–194.

Text by Hamish Robertson