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Alfred Lawrence was born 19 July 1826, the fifth child and fourth son of William, the founder of Lawrence & Co. In November 1842 he was bound apprentice to Henry Grissell, a London ironmonger, who agreed to take whatever measures were required to enable him to take up his freedom in the Ironmongers’ Company (PETH 5/4-5), and Alfred probably entered this Company in due course. It appears from letters sent to Alfred by his friend Joseph Phillips in the years 1851 and 1852 (PETH 5/8-12) that by that time he was engaged in the building trade in some way—possibly working in his father’s firm. He also became a commissioner of lieutenancy for London. In 1858 he married Mary Elizabeth Ridge (d. 1903), by whom he had five children, including Frederick William, later Lord Pethick-Lawrence. Alfred died of the effects of an accident on 9 June 1875. ‘While still in middle life he had an accident by colliding with a pillar in a railway-station as he was running along beside a moving train. I think he must have suffered an internal injury which was never discovered . . . He succumbed to pleurisy, after vainly seeking health on the French Riviera.’ (Fate Has Been Kind, p. 17.)