Mary Lawrence

click Post Offices of Loosley Row and Lacey Green for other Post Offices

click Shops for other retail outlets also Business

click Families for other local families

Mary Lawrence born in 1940 was the daughter of Jack & Ethel Lawrence. Click Jack & Mrs Lawrence

In 1963 Mary's mother died. By then the family smallholding and cottage of 1932 had grown to become a farm and sizeable grocery store with a Post Office. click Hill Croft and Jack & Mrs Lawrence for more about Mary's life.

The shop had been largely run by Mrs Lawrence, with the added assistance firstly of Jean and later of Mary

1970 Mary Sub-Postmistress

In 1970 Jack became ill. Mrs Lawrence had died and Jean had married and left so it was decided to reduce the shop-cum-Post Office, leaving one small extension for Mary to run and Mary was appointed Sub-Postmistress. From now on only a few useful things were stocked in the shop, including of course eggs.

1993. Congratulations to our Post Mistress, Mary Lawrence, recently honoured by the Post Office for 23 years’ service

Mary continued with her little shop and Post Office until 1997 when she decided to close it following two armed robbery attempts.

Hallmark May 1997. Report from the Organisers of the Cash Collection

There cannot be anyone in our villages who has not been affected in some way by the closure of the Post Office – just another erosion of village life – but this was all the more serious because it was brought about by some armed thug.

The general feeling in the village of sympathy and support for Mary has been overwhelming. There was a little party at the Post Office the evening before it closed. We started a collection as we thought it would be a popular idea to buy a little something to show Mary how much we appreciated her. She spent many years helping people, standing behind the counter, without a holiday or even a proper day off.

However, the response to the collection has been quite overwhelming. We opened an account at Lloyds Bank and within days the money was flowing in. The grand total exceeded £700!

It is very difficult when you start something like this to judge how everyone wants the money spent, so we consulted Mary herself. She agreed with our suggestion that we make out a cheque to her for the final amount and let her decide how and when she would like to spend it. She preferred not to have any official presentation or ceremony. We trust this is agreeable to everyone.

Hallmark August 1997. Letter to the Editor from Mary Lawrence :-

I would like to express my sincere thanks to each and everyone who so kindly contributed to the collection to mark my retirement from Loosley Row Post Office.

When I was presented with the money the total amount collected was breath taking. This came as a complete surprise to me. It was a very well-kept secret. It just goes to show I didn’t know everything that was going on in the village! Also, my thanks to the organisers of the collection and for all the hard work that was involved.

Thank you also for the kind tributes paid to me on the certificate and in the summer edition of Hallmark.

By the time you read this letter in Hallmark it will be six months since I closed down. The change from running the Post Office to retirement has not been so difficult as I thought it would be. In fact, I am enjoying the freedom very much.

We have been on our very first holiday to Newquay in Cornwall. It was very enjoyable with plenty of interesting places to see and the weather was quite good.

I enjoyed Village Day much more this year as I was out the whole day and it was lovely seeing friends again. The only comment that I would make is I didn’t have time to see all of the activities due to too much chatting!

I have received my retirement gift from the Post Office, a Royal Doulton dinner and tea service, also my last certificate for being the top performing area office for the year 1996-1997. It was nice to finish on a high note! Even though I am now retired, my former Post Office managers have called in to see me, which was nice of them.

Once again, may I thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for the kindness and generosity shown to me.

Thanking you. Yours very sincerely,

Mary Lawrence

Text of framed “certificate” presented to Mary:

We, the people of Loosley Row and Lacey Green wish to express to Mary Lawrence

our appreciation for the help, friendship and many unselfish gestures you have provided

so willingly over the years and our respect for your integrity, in both business and private matters

Mary Lawrence died in 2019. She was much loved, and greatly missed.