Robert Alasdair Davidson Lawrence MC (born 3 July 1960) is a former British Army officer who fought and was severely wounded in the Falklands War. His account of his experiences during and after the war was later adapted into the controversial television play Tumbledown, and his book co-written with his father, John Lawrence, When the Fighting Is Over: A Personal Story of the Battle for Tumbledown Mountain and Its Aftermath
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Lawrence was born on 3 July 1960; his father had served in the Royal Air Force.[1] Lawrence was educated at Rose Hill School, Alderley[2] and then Fettes College, but left at the age of 16; some accounts state that he was expelled.[3] He decided to join the army, largely to placate his father. After attending Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he was commissioned into the Scots Guards as a second lieutenant with a short service commission on 4 August 1979.[4] He was promoted to lieutenant on 4 August 1981.[5]
Second Battalion, Scots Guards were part of the second wave of British land forces committed to the Falklands War.
Lawrence wrote about his experience in the Scots Guards at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown and the injury he sustained at the hands of an Argentine sniper. A 7.62x51 mm round passed through the rear of his skull, emerging at his hairline above his right eye. He lay on the thin cover of snow on the exposed mountaintop for six hours. Airlifted off Tumbledown, Lawrence was left outside a makeshift operating theatre without painkillers. Two days from his 22nd birthday, he assumed he was the last to be operated on because he was the least likely to survive (triage).
Lawrence lost 43% of his brain and was paralysed down one side of his body. He was awarded the Military Cross on 11 October 1982.[6] He was discharged from the army on 14 November 1983.[7]
His story was adapted into the BBC television play Tumbledown by Charles Wood, starring Colin Firth as Lawrence, which was viewed by more than 10 million people on its first showing.
Lawrence married and emigrated to Australia where he worked in the film industry. He subsequently divorced, returned to England and re-married. He was interviewed by several British newspapers on the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. He has since established and now runs Global Adventure Plus, a project to help rehabilitate British ex-servicemen through expeditions to foreign countries.[8]