Dot Lawrence, 1927 - 2008
Many members will have been saddened by the news that Dot (Norah Doreen) Lawrence died in December 2008. She had been a member and Road Steward of the Chislehurst Society for very many years, and at her funeral in December, many of her friends from the Society attended to pay their last respects.
The following is an extract from a tribute given at her funeral by her friend Barry Gray.
"It has been my privilege to work with Dot Lawrence on many occasions over a quarter of a century.
We are here today to pay our last respects to Dot and give thanks for her life and extraordinary achievements and to mourn her death. Dot had a long, rich and multi faceted life. There is much to celebrate, not least of which is her tenacious campaigning spirit.
When I was preparing my notes I happened across the 1993 High Court Judgement when Dot and eight others, the Oxleas nine took on the Government in the High Court over the matter of Oxleas Wood. The cover page of the judgement read "Mrs N D Lawrence and others versus the Secretary of State for the Environment". The Secretary of State at the time was Michael Heseltine and I thought to myself:- Dot Lawrence versus Michael Heseltine, no prizes for guessing who came off worse in that encounter. Dot's name was on the cover page because when the time came to commit to this action in the courts she was first to sign up of the Oxleas nine and her name was head of the list even though she risked financial ruin if the action failed. This little anecdote I believe shows the courage and absolute commitment of Dot.
Her life was full of surprises. For instance when I was learning about her early life I discovered that she wasn't from around here at all; Dot was an East End girl born in Poplar. Her family moved to Jackson Street, Woolwich, when she was an infant and thus Dot became an honorary native. She liked to boast that she lived with her parents and two brothers and two sisters near the former home of General Gordon of Khartoum. Dot lived and went to school locally. She later, as a teenager, worked as a clerk in a solicitor’s office in Woolwich, and later moved with the firm to Piccadilly. When the war came along Dot characteristically "did her bit" working as a junior clerk in the air raid precaution centre at Shrewsbury House on Shooters Hill. This must have been an exciting time for the young Dot.
Many years later at meetings at Shrewsbury House she would sometimes regale us with stories of long nights of fire watching duty fortified with mugs of cocoa, of preparing urgent reports on a battered copying machine to be taken off by Army dispatch riders to who knows where, and even of the revolting banana sandwiches that the mobile canteen in the grounds of Shrewsbury House produced. The bananas were in truth made of mashed boiled parsnips with banana essence. It must have been during this time that Dot began to develop her lifelong and deep affection and commitment to local architecture, natural history and the communities of this area, but it is a dogged and determined and effective campaigner that many of us will remember Dot. The breadth of her interest is quite staggering.
Dot attended three East London River Crossing public enquiries over twenty years. It is a source of comfort that Dot will have learned before she died that it has now finally been declared unlikely that the Thames Gateway Bridge, the successor to the East London River Crossing, will ever be built. Dot was secretary to ‘People Against the River Crossing’ for many years. She was a founder secretary of the Woodlands Farm Trust and member of, among many other organisations, The Theatre Club, The Chislehurst Society, Shooters Hill Local History Society, Plumstead Common Environment Group, Greenwich Industrial History Group, Woolwich Antiquarians, The Severndroog Castle Campaign and of course the Cats Protection League, reflecting her deep love and kindness towards animals. Dot often played down her role in campaigns by saying she was giving "mere admin" support. Administration was her forte, and at times she could be infuriating, but she could and did create order out of the chaos of many of our organisations by tirelessly producing a stream of minutes, agendas, and position papers for meetings. But let there be no doubt that without Dot's contribution many of our local campaigns, now nationally famous, would have foundered. Dot could and did both forcefully and thoughtfully intervene at public enquiries. Always her interest on these occasions was to give a voice and represent those who appeared to be powerless and who do not normally get a hearing at enquiries.
1 would like to give two examples of this if I may. Dot worked relentlessly with ‘Plumstead Against the River Crossing’ and her friends Simon Baines, Ernie Legg, Andrew Whiley and Jacqui Atkinson, among others, during the 1985/6 ELRC Campaign. The impact of the objectors on that enquiry, amongst them Dot, had its effect. It resulted in the lead barrister for the GLC declaring during his summing up speech that the East London River Crossing Public Enquiry was the closest to a true public enquiry that he had ever taken part in.
The second example occurred during the frantic and breathless trips to Brussels by members of ‘People Against the River Crossing’ in 1992, to lobby and petition the EU Commissioner for the environment, after the Government had given its decision on Oxleas Wood. Dot and I made two trips by train. Jacqui Atkinson and Dave Black made the trips less comfortably, but more heroically, by bicycle. Although not in the first flush of youth Dot was a bundle of energy, rushing here and there around Brussels. At our meeting with Ripa di Meana, the Commissioner, Dot could barely conceal her anger and outrage. I can clearly remember her chastising this aristocratic Italian for letting the British Government get away with so much. This clearly had an effect as the EU Commission issued what was in effect a restraining order on the British Government and in 1993 when Ripa di Meana, visited an Oxleas festival, he declared "a piece of my heart will be ever Oxleas Wood".
With Dot's death, and the death earlier this year of her friend Jack Vaughan, many may feel that an era is passing. This may be so but the life and achievements of Dot Lawrence do have a much wider legacy that many who do not even know Dot will enjoy for many decades to come.
And what an extraordinary achievement, which is now part of the National Environmental History, Dot had a pre-eminent part in - a government road scheme stopped in its tracks by community action. The motorway will now not go crashing through hundreds of homes in the quiet streets of Plumstead and will not destroy large parts of Woodlands Farm, Oxleas Wood and Rockcliffe Gardens, special places that Dot loved so well. Oxleas Wood is now intact and peaceful. It is managed by community volunteers who would have been joined by Dot in her later years had she been more mobile. There is no motorway on Woodlands Farm, which is now a thriving community farm.
I well remember how happy and proud Dot was when in the summer I was abie to tell her that over 5,000 school children had visited the farm that year, many of these school children from schools in the poorest parts of Woolwich. There is nowhere in these special places now to be heard the roar of traffic, but only the sound of wind in the hedgerows and trees. Out of potential environmental mayhem has come community action and a stronger community. Dot Lawrence was a large part of this triumph and this is her enduring legacy. So when wandering around the charming lanes, hedgerows and meadows of Woodlands Farm or viewing the springtime wild flowers or green coppices in Oxleas Wood, pause for a while, remember Dot Lawrence and give thanks for her life and achievement.
We all remember Dot with fondness and admiration. We say farewell to a loved relative and a dear friend. For my own part, and I am sure I speak for all here, I say farewell to an extraordinary campaign comrade, a true friend and champion of the underdog. I also say, with the greatest affection and respect, farewell to an illustrious and much loved member of the awkward squad. Dot's life and achievements show us all that love of community, vision, and determination can conquer all.
Thank you Dot – Farewell! "