“LUCKY JIM”

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1938, Page 2

“LUCKY JIM”

PLUNKET CRASH SURVIVOR

LONDON, August 17

In Hollywood, Mayfair, and St. Moritz, they call Mr. Walter Woollard Lawrence, 30-year-old son of Sir Walter Lawrence, of Hyde Hall, Sawbridgewortli. Hertfordshire. “L-uclcy Jim.” i

He has toyed repeatedly with death in motor races, on the Cresta Run, and in the air since his youth, and now he is well on the way to almost complete recovery from the injuries he.received in the aeroplane crash in which his close friends. Lord and Lady Plunket, and their pilot lost their lives in California in February. His broken leg still in bandages, he told a reporter that he hopes to compete again for his Cresta trophies next Winter (if not this), and that he has not. abandoned the idea, of playing squash for the Bachelor Club again.

“As for the Cresta. . . well. 1 hold two magnificent cups and I’m loath to let. them go,” he said. “The crash has not destroyed my nerve. "1 -was lucky not to lose my leg, and I shall still be able to play games after a fashion." To the, magnificent fill. 3:n. man who is not only first-class on the “bob” run, hut. a. mainstay with hat ami ball on his father’s private cricket ground and one of the fraternal triumvirate who successfully challenged any other three brothers in England to a. squash match, this is of t remendous importance. Probably one of the dozen best men in society on the ballroom floor, he also appreciates the fact that he will be able to dance again. But the accident had made a deep psychological impression on him. “There is only one thing for me to do nt present-work,” he said. “The crash has affected my whole outlook and you won’t see me around the W'rsl lend so much.” By work he means carrying out his duties as governing director of his father's building firm in London. Perhaps “Jim” Lawrence’s most, famous motoring exploit, was racing the. Blue Train from Calais to Cannes (72n miles) and beating it by an hour. i His strength ami endurance are ter-; ritic. and it. is Io this that he owes his life. His struggle to live astonished his doctors, it is said. "The consolation of the crash,” he concluded, “is that. ! made, lots of new ■friends while I was recuperating in Hollywood. Douglas Fairbanks, jun., and Norma Shearer were marvellously good to me.”