Lawrence was born in Wolverhampton in 1909, the son of Herbert and Ada Kendrick. In 1911, he was living with his parents at 17 Paget Road in Wolverhampton. He married Eileen Maud Cox in Rowley Regis in 1938. The couple were living at 21 Ward Road, Sedgley in 1939. Lawrence was working as a bank clerk (cashier), and Eileen was working as a bank clerk temporarily for the duration of the war. There are two children born in the Registration District of Rowley Regis (which covered Sedgley) with the surname Kendrick and the mother’s maiden name of Cox, so it is possible the couple had two children.

Lawrence joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and served as a Lieutenant on the HMS Kite. The ship was escorting convoy JW59 to Northern Russia when the convoy was sighted in the Barent Sea by German aircraft. In the early morning of 21 August 1944, the Kite slowed to 6 knots to untangle her anti-acoustic torpedo noise makers, which made her an easy target. The ship was was hit by two torpedoes from U-344 (Pietsch) and sank. Of Kite’s crew of 217, 60 survived the attack, but only 14 sailors were picked up alive from the freezing Arctic water by HMS Keppel. Five of those rescued later died on board HMS Keppel. Unfortunately, Lawrence did not survive this attack. He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and on that of the Royal Wolverhampton School in Penn Road, which he presumably attended. The value of his effects when he died was £732 143. 11d.

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The research for this blog post was carried out by remote virtual volunteer, Doug Lewis.