First name/s: Lawrence John Charles
Last name: Norcross
Known names / nicknames: Lawrie
Date of birth: 14/04/1927
Year of birth: 1927
Life before Ruskin
Date and place of birth: 14 April 1927, Peterborough
Family: Father an Electrician, ‘who died young in a motorcycle crash’ (Daily Telegraph).
Work: Royal Navy (1940-1949), Print.
Politics/Trade union activity: Communist Party (in print industry).
Trade Union membership (at time of entry to Ruskin)
Life at Ruskin
Dates at Ruskin: 1952-1954
Source of funding: not known
Campaigns/political activity: Communist Party
Subjects studied at Ruskin: English.
Dissertation:
Qualification: not known
Life after Ruskin
Education: Leeds University, BA English (graduated 1957)
Work: Secondary School Teaching, London (including Battersea County School). Headteacher Highbury Grove School 1974-1987
Politics/trade union activity: Labour Party, Conservative Party. Right-wing activism through involvement in Centre for Policy Studies, and Hillgate Group, as author of (e.g.) The ILEA: a Case for Reform (1981). Member of the National Council for Educational Standards, a campaigning group of the educational right.
Family: Married Margaret Wallace (1959). Three sons, one daughter
Place & date of death: “My father died on the 31st of January 2010, in Steyning, West Sussex, where he was living following the death of his wife the previous July.” (Joanna Norcross)
Date of death:
Year of death: 2010
Achievements / Publications
The ILEA: a Case for Reform (1981). Centre for Policy Studies
The ILEA after the Abolition of the GLC (1983). Centre for Policy Studies
Whose Schools, a Radical Manifesto (1985). (with Caroline Cox and others). The Hillgate Group.
Material in archives or already published articles
Obituaries : TES Newspaper on 26 February, 2010 by Adi Bloom; Daily Telegraph 27th April 2010; Islington Tribune 7th May 2010
Image
Notes on Image/s
Image can be found in:
Daily Telegraph Obituary http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7640159/Lawrence-Norcross.html
Comment of contributor/s and sources
Sources, as above, and as corrected by Joanna Norcross (daughter) 22nd October 2014.
Author/s
Ken Jones
My father died on the 31st of January 2010, in Steyning, West Sussex, where he was living following the death of his wife the previous July.
His mother, my Grandmother, was not a servant when she became pregnant with my Father (the TES has a lot to answer for) and she did not return to service, this was 1934 after all!
My Father graduated from Leeds University in 1957 so on that basis attended Ruskin from 1952 to 1954, but he most definitely studied English at Ruskin.
We’ve amended the entry for Lawrence Norcross, in line with Joanna’s comments.
Hope to be able to contact Joanna.
I am related (I believe through my grandfather Arthur Hedges) to Lawrie and your parents were very kind to me when I was studying in London in about 1971 and put me up in your home in Balham
Anne and I reciprocated in Bristol when Matthew was struggling in the early 80s.
Lawrie and Margaret came to our home about 6 years ago when we held a party and we sent a card each year but had not heard for a few years. This year the owners of the house they retired to in Warwickshire sent us an e mail advising of their deaths.
Your parents were influential in my early years and I am so sorry to hear of their deaths.
I would be keen to make contact with you (or Matthew) to share family history and catch up
My number is 07774 112891 – and you have my e address.
Hope to hear from you but send very best wishes and fondest memories of your folks Ian Burnham