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.”[4]
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.”[5]
Lawson was interested in succulent plants and was encouraged by Archdeacon Frederick A. Rogers[8] to collect specimens. Lawson prepared herbarium specimens and presented plants for identification to Maria Wilman, who was then director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley. Wilman passed some of Lawson's specimens on to the Bolus Herbarium in Cape Town. The species Ruschia lawsonii (Perdevygie) was named after him by Louisa Bolus.
Reinterment
Archdeacon Lawson's remains were reinterred in the Garden of Remembrance at St Cyprian's Cathedral in Kimberley.
References
^Information on grave stone, St Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kimberley.
