Lawrie Robert

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Biografie:
Robert Lawrie 1902-1982
In Robert Lawrie, 'Rob' to all his many friends, the Club has lost a most unusual member. Even his election to the AC was a little unusual because it was based mainly upon his contributions to mountaineering as a business man; but not entirely so. His record of Alpine ascents alone
would have qualified him; climbs in Switzerland, Austria and France. It is a somewhat sobering thought to think that if he had been put up for membership in the days when I first joined the Club and ballot boxes were still in use at Savile Row, he would almost certainly have been black-balled, like Arnold Lunn, because he was in 'trade' and had a professional interest in mountaineering.
Rob was a man of parts. But above all he was a mountaineering boot maker extraordinary! He had learnt the craft of boot and shoe making from his father in Burnley when he worked in his shop there before moving to London in the twenties to set up on his own as a specialist boot maker; and it was in that trade that he first made his name. And what marvellous boots he did make for some of the most famous mountaineers, walkers and explorers from all over the world! I, myself, am still wearing a pair of Lawrie boots which he made for me when I went to Mount Everest in 1938; and when I go out in them on SMC meets fellow members admire them with astonishment. (SMC Journal 1982, p 293.) Rob designed the original mountaineering boots he made himself, and a pair of Lawrie boots was instantly recognisable. When in 1935 I found the body of Maurice Wilson, near Camp 3 on Everest, I wrote in my diary of that time (now in the AC's archives): 'I saw a boot, one of Lawrie's, lying in the snow and a little ahead was a green mass'. (The body of Wilson.)
Soon after he had set up in London, Rob expanded his business as a specialist boot maker to take in the provision of mountaineering equipment of all kinds for walkers, mountaineers and explorers and so by the 'thirties' the firm of Robert Lawrie, Ltd, had become the principal supplier of such equipment in this country. The first major Himalayan expedition to be supplied with climbing boots by his firm was Frank Smythe's successful one to Kamet in 1931. Thereafter, over a period of some 50 years, almost every important British expedition was supplied with specialist equipment by him. For his services to polar exploration he had a newly discovered glacier in the Antarctic named after him.
Bat, as I said before, Rob was a man of parts. One of his ambitions over a number of years had been to compete in the Le Mans 24 hour motor race and this he achieved when in the first post war revival of that event he entered the race driving an Aston Martin and obtained a finishing place. He competed twice more at Le Mans but with less success. He was a member of the racing drivers' club there and used to pay regular visits to watch the race. His pit manager the first time he raced at Le Mans was our member Ivan Waller who had himself been a racing driver in his day. What a heady occasion it was when we and some of his other friends dashed over to France to watch that first race! Rob was also interested in fire-arms and was a keen revolver shot. I can remember an excursion with him to a gravel pit near Newark during the war for some pistol practice at which, to my relief, I acquitted myself quite well having been taught as a boy not to snatch at the trigger but to squeeze it.
Sadly, Rob's health deteriorated over the last few years of his life following a serious motor accident on the Continent in which he was concussed and suffered injuries to his knee and back from which he never completely recovered.
Of a most friendly and outgoing personality, Rob had friends all over the world. In its hey-day there never was another establishment quite like that of Robert Lawrie, Ltd. There you received personal advice and attention from Rob himself and his two faithful and charming partners; and would invariably meet some famous personality of the mountaineering world.
But let me end on a personal note. I got to know Rob soon after he came to London; and when I went to Everest in 1936 I sub-let my flat to him. Later on he moved into another flat in the same house and so for several years we saw a lot of each other until on the outbreak of war in 1939 we became separated. During the war he moved his business to Newark and supplied equipment for the services and I visited him there. Rob always remained a very dear friend of mine. But, alas, after his accident his character changed and he was never again quite the same person.
Charles Warren
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 88, 1983, Seite 260-261



Geboren am:
1902
Gestorben am:
1982