The Lawrence Papers – finding a home for a BBC Correspondent’s Historic Collection

Tidying a home left empty by the death of its inhabitant should be a grisly task. But the presence of lifelong BBC Asia correspondent Anthony Lawrence continued to charm when I grabbed the chance to help empty his Hong Kong home. Along his well-organised book shelves was the evidence of a clear-thinking, hard-working man, precise with his words.

On the top shelves was a row of old ring binders, many of them warped by age and damp. Inside, joy. Neatly filed in chronological order were the carbon copies of countless news despatches, typed out by Tony on a manual typewriter, scored through by rampant edits in pencil.

On one piece he has eliminated entire first paragraphs, in others he has tweaked a word or two. Here is a story about the condition of people fleeing newly communist China. There is another about the destruction wrought by bombing in south Vietnam. No matter how large the subject, how terrifying its content, or the clear seams of compassion coming through Tony’s prose, he worked at it. Each word, each phrase was written, thought about and re-written, until it was right.

I remember him telling me once about posting off these scripts by airmail to editors in London and what a great development it was when casette tapes came along. In Tony’s files lies proof of the journalist’s craft, of laborious care, often without air conditioning in the tropics, the patience, the clear-eyed observation. When a story had to be tapped out by hand direct onto tape which was then printed out on a telex form - and copies of these survive too - one needs to be sure about each single word.

Other clues to his professionalism are found in his contact books - who but a journalist thinks to put a date on each address book. The phone numbers were alarmingly short. Just four or five digits for heads of governments or banks in countries gradually emerging from conflict into a new world. Here too are his travel journals, for a trip to Sulawesi in 1962, or Japan or Thailand. In other large envelopes were the drafts of Tony’s various books, his memoirs, some novels and more observations on the East. He kept copies of his published articles too - including one he wrote on the famous drinking and discussion club called Alcoholics Synonymous.

After persuading the Special Collections at the University of Hong Kong to give a home to the Lawrence Papers, the generosity of Tony Lawrence in life now lasts long beyond his death. I hope the fact that his body of work is now placed to inspire and teach new generations of journalists would please him.