Obituaries Australia

J. Russell Lawry, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 July 1921

Lieut. Lawry, youngest son of Mr. W. F. Lawry, chief inspector of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, and son-in-law of Mr. James Campbell, of Pindari Station, Inverell, N.S.W., died on 4th June, and was buried at sea with full ceremony en route Shanghai to Hongkong. Educated under the tutorship of Mr. J. Lee Pulling, Crofton College, Sydney, he entered business life in that city, and subsequently took up farming at Delungra, N.S.W., until the call of duty impelled him to serve his country—the country where his great grandfather landed a hundred years ago to pioneer in the cause of philanthropy. He enlisted in 1915 as gunner, and served on the French front in the 7th Brigade, 3rd Division, A.I.F. He obtained his commission on the field, and was a great favourite with all his comrades in arms. With them he underwent severe hardships during the campaign, and after many narrow escapes came through unscathed, but with his constitution greatly shaken.

After recuperating at the residence of his brother Arthur, at Goldfield, Nev., U.S.A., he obtained a position with the General Petroleum Company, San Francisco, and served them for a time on the oilfields in Southern California, subsequently securing the appointment as chief agent in the East for the Paraffine Companies, Inc., of San Francisco. On arrival in Shanghai at the beginning of February last, he was taken seriously ill, but his later cables indicated at any rate partial recovery. A telegram, however, from his friend, Mr. Evans, of the Paraffine Company, announced his death at sea.

His bright and sunny nature endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. He leaves a widow and one son. And so another of the thousands of the flower of our nation has "gone west." The loss of so large a proportion of our best young lives leaves the community the poorer and less able to resist those malign influences which are sapping the foundations of Australian national life.