George Mervyn Lawson
The Venerable Fr George Merwyn Lawson served as archdeacon of Kuruman, 1913–1941, in the Kimberley and Kuruman, and as Director of Missions for Griqualand West from 1903 until his death.
Early life
He was the second son of George Lawson of London, and was educated at Westminster School and King's College, London. He matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1886, graduating B.A. in 1889.Ministry
Initially on the staff of St Cyprian's Church in Kimberley, Lawson was in charge of the four ‘location’ missions in that town, based at St Matthew's, Kimberley, around the turn of the twentieth century. At this time he commenced “outlying work” in the rural hinterland, leaving a description of Mass in a “rough hut of sticks”, the altar “a packing case with my portable altar on the top – yet all was reverent as in a cathedral” – “it reminded me of Bethlehem.”His most distant mission work in 1905 was at Khosis north of Postmasburg. In 1916 Bishop Wilfrid Gore Browne described how Lawson traveled “1040 miles every two months, on horse-back, staying at farms on the way.”
During World War I Lawson served as Chaplain first to the Kalahari Horse in the German South West Africa Campaign and later volunteered for work in Europe.