He taught at the local Grammar school in a hamlet encompassed in the sprawl of Penn. This was one of the few Grammar schools to survive the purge and change to “Comprehensives,” instigated by the old Labour political regime, under Shirley Williams, the then Education Minister. The ‘New Labour,’ of the present day, appeared to support the same ideals but had proved hypocritical in that belief, the hierarchy choosing the more elite education for their own offspring. He was not to know that the policy of “Comprehensives” was later to be rescinded by the new Government, to the absolute surprise of all. Lawrence, as a firm believer in the old system of education as the proven best, was glad of the apparent confusion; at least it meant that his school was safe for the present. Despite this, he was a troubled man. At the age of thirty, he had surrendered to his sexual penchant for boys. Up to then, he had suppressed the urge and attempted to hide his homosexuality from the outside world.
