22 EDITION 198 JAGUAR MAGAZINE
"Heparticipatedat Le ManstHreetiMeswitHa bestpLacingofsecond (1957), and
partneredarcHiescottbrown, JackfairMan, niniansandersonand JackfairMan"NEW ZEALAND IS FILLED WITH PLEASANT SURPRISES.
If you love cars, significant international characters live or have
lived there including a former Jaguar Director, and Lance
Macklin who raced the Austin Healey hit by Pierre Levegh at
Le Mans in 1955. Then there was John 'Jock' Lawrence who
finished second at Le Mans in 1957 driving the Ecurie Ecosse
ex-works Long Nose D-Type XKD603!
Jock returned to England late in the '80s, but his wife Jean
and children stayed in Auckland, and remain still. He died in
1995 aged 73 having been born in Thinacre Lodge, Hamilton
outside Glasgow. His family moved to Aberdeenshire soon
af ter. His racing memorabilia remains in Auckland.
Known as John, not Jock, he is an enigma despite his drives
with Ecurie Ecosse in Jaguars. Bill Crook and Larr y Price
visited Jean who spoke about her late-husband.
"He was brought up in Cullen, a seaside town near Inverness
where his widowed mother ran a guest house. Af ter the
War John couldn't settle, having been an engineer on Motor
Torpedo Boats which of ten were later conver ted into luxur y
machines. John was of fered a job to maintain one owned
by a wealthy American, but his mother set him up in a small
garage instead. I think he was quite stif fled.
"I was 18 and came to know him while my mother had a hotel
in a nearby village. He raced on family money, but contacted
Newcastle businessman JK Hunter who had an ex-works
1953 Le Mans C-Type and of fered to sponsor John.
"My sister and I decided to meet him. He was 33, and that
was the star t of a funny little romance - I couldn't tell my
mother I was seeing someone 15 years older! I finished
college at 21, and we continued our undercover romance.
When I eventually told my mother she would not accept it, so
we ran away to avoid problems.
"He picked me up in a Jaguar and whisked me of f to stay
with Wilkie Wilkinson and his wife. With a ring on my finger,
my mother came around, and we married about nine months
later. Jackie Stewar t's brother Jimmy was our best man.
"John quit racing in 1959, and we moved to New Zealand
where he ran the ser vice depar tment for a Ford dealer while
we raised our three children. In the late '60s we were invited
to dinner with Jim Clark, Jackie, and Graham Hill when they
raced here. I experienced a moment of reflected glor y.
John's favourite car to work on was always a Jaguar."
He met a surprised Lof t y England there in the late 1980s, and
not long af ter came back to the UK and remarried.
He is not to be underestimated. He drove C-Types, D-Types
and Tojeiro Jaguars for Ecurie Ecosse, par ticipated at Le
Mans three times with a best placing of second (1957),
and par tnered Archie Scott Brown, Jack Fairman, Ninian
Sanderson and Jack Fairman. He competed at Le Mans,
the Nurburgring, Monza and Goodwood. He had victories
at Crimmond, Char terhall, Snetter ton and Goodwood. His
family has a lot to be proud of.01 John Lawrence in 1952 racing his ex-Brian Lister
Cooper MG which set him onto a grander path.
02 On the way to a win at Goodwood in XKC042
which spent some years in Melbourne.
03 Looking pleased with himself alongside Ecurie
Ecosse team-mate Ninian Sanderson.01
02
03