Herry's Archives

Watching the film, 'All The Money In The World' about John Paul Getty and the kidnapping of his grandson in Rome, I was reminded of how one finds oneself on the outer fringes of history sometimes, usually through people that one knows. We are slightly connected to the story through Pol and Poppet Pol who were old friends of my parents and who Prue and I also stayed with in the South of France, sometimes with Sally Wilson-Young . Sally, Anette, Patrick and Prue in Pol and Poppet's garden Pol’s daughter Talitha married John Paul Getty Jr, one of the sons of the original Paul Getty and it was his son (from a previous marriage) who was kidnapped in Rome in 1973.  I sometimes met their son Tara at Pol and Poppet’s - he is now a conservationist in Africa - and gave him him an electric train set for his birthday. The other odd connection is though Kate ,  (our friend and Kei's nanny who died last year). She looked after Tara for Pol and Poppet in the 1970s when Tali...

                                        Kate and Kei at Cliveden 1994 Kate was born on 23 rd March 1953 in Swansea, a much loved and wanted baby and the eldest child of Vincent, a consulting engineer and Alice O’Brien. There were two younger siblings, Elisabeth and Michael. The family had roots in Scotland near Caithness where Alice’s family, the Gunn clan is from. Kate’s grandparents were Irish - O’Brien and O’Callaghan on her father’s side and Scottish and Welsh – Davies – on her mother’s. Her sister Lis writes: She was a happy infant and toddler although she had strong likes and dislikes – with an early and distinct aversion to both ‘cow juice’ and to dirt.  She always loved books and animals. To her brother Michael she was ‘the witty, pretty one’ and to sister Lis she was the clever, glamorous older sister. During childhood, her weekends were spent ridi...

Richard Harwood's retirement at Castle Carey with his wife Jan, Tony Payne, Roger Lewis and Julie Mavropoulos. Photo Stuart Munro  Our Dad was an exceptional man; he was a highly intelligent, resourceful and loyal father. Born in 1933, he lived in Sanderstead, the youngest son of Sydney and Grace Harwood and had two siblings, John and Margaret. He attended Sanderstead Grammer School where he excelled on the cricket pitch. Following school he went on to study for an HND in Electrical Engineering. During his younger years he developed a passion for motorbikes, cars and a life-long love for railways. We have a photograph of him and his mates sitting in his Delage prior to heading off to Spain. He told us that they had had a slight mishap on the journey and a chap in a small garage in the middle of nowhere rebuilt the back of the car in ash; all for the princely sum of £5. The engine of the Delage eventually gave out and Dad in his normal ‘can do’ attitude managed t...

Back row: Francis Frost, Stephen James, Bill Birch Reynardson (Senior partner), Terence Coghlin, John Jillings, Michael Summerskill, Michael Miller, Charles Goldie, Robin Travis, Hugo Wynn-Williams, David Martin-Clark, Peter Wright, Nigel Lindrea, Herry Lawford Seated: Anne James, Gillie Wright, Lies Frost, Margaret Martin-Clark, Marylees Summerskill, Beatrice Goldie, Jill Miller, Nik Birch Reynardson, Anthea Wodehouse, Sally Lindrea, Glenys Travis.                               Glenys, who died in December 2016, was unmissable - forthright, extremely bright and an excellent lawyer. She was wonderful at dealing with Members - particularly the Greeks, who she usually easily out-talked, and was always full of good humour, One could hear her deep voice and throaty laughter from behind the enormous stacks of Defence files that she was always working on. She famously had three wire filing trays on her desk label...