George Mervyn Lawson, minister of religion, was the son of George Lawson and his wife Mary Louisa Thomson. He grew up in London where he matriculated from Westminster School and King's College in January 1885. After qualifying as
Bachelor of Arts (BA) at the University of Oxford in 1889 he underwent religious training and emigrated to South
Africa in 1892 to do missionary work in Griqualand West. Initially he was on the staff
of St Cyprian's Church in Kimberley, where he was in charge of four missions.
Around 1900 he commenced work in the outlying areas and from 1903 until his
death was director of missions for Griqualand West. From 1913 to 1941 he
furthermore served as Archdeacon of Kuruman in the Anglican Diocese of
Kimberley and Kuruman. During World War I (1914-1918) he was chaplain to the
Kalahari Horse during the South West Africa campaign and later volunteered for
work in Europe.
Lawson was interested in succulent plants and was encouraged
in his collecting activities by Archdeacon F.A. Rogers*. He prepared herbarium
specimens and presented plants for identification to Maria Wilman*, director
of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, who passed some of them on to the Bolus
Herbarium in Cape Town. The species Ruschia
lawsonii (Perdevygie) was named after him by Mrs H.M.L. Bolus*.
Lawson later presented his correspondence during the period
1921-1939 to the Kimberley Public Library. Upon his death he left a collection
of 247 original drawings and engravings by French, Dutch, Flemish, English and
Italian masters to the same library. In 1991 the collection was transferred to
the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, where it is known as the Lawson
collection. He was not married.
