Alderman LAWRENCE HAMILTON GORDON (‘LAWRIE’) SHUTTLEWORTH, DFC, born on 18 November 1914, died in Kimberley aged 103 on 2 MAY 2018, having lived and served in the city for seven decades, inter alia as Mayor.

Shuttleworth, born in Johannesburg, was educated in Grahamstown, matriculating from Graeme College (he proudly hosted Graeme College choir visits to Kimberley in his last years), before enrolling as a student at Rhodes University in 1933. He excelled in boxing, becoming bantamweight champion at the university. He graduated in 1935 with a BCom degree and then lectured for a time at the Witwatersrand Technical College – but this was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939.

Shuttleworth was called up to active service in the South African Air Force, having already earned his wings in 1937, in peacetime, in the SAAF ‘Pirow’ pilot training scheme. Initially he served in East Africa in support of ground troops and reconnaissance, then in protecting shipping against U-boats along the African coastline, and ultimately he was based in Italy on bombing missions in the latter stages of the war. By this time he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Shot down twice, crash landing in the sea once, and logging some 1700 flying hours, Shuttleworth was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his “qualities of leadership and devotion to duty”.

It was in 1948 that Shuttleworth and his wife Claudia (née Harcourt-Baldwin) – they had married in 1940 – moved to Kimberley, with their children Patricia, Anthony and Jennifer. Having completed his articles as a Chartered Accountant in Johannesburg, it was to this city that Shuttleworth came to practise, and he would remain in Kimberley for the next seven decades.

As much as Lawrie Shuttleworth made his mark professionally, it is for his services to the city and the public, in multiple spheres and projects, that he is best remembered.

Inducted as a Rotarian in 1952, and having responsible roles from the start in major undertakings such as the Harmony Home convalescent facility (opened in 1959), he was elected before long as president of the Kimberley Rotary Club. He was to be a committed Rotarian for the remainder of his life.

At St Cyprian’s Cathedral he had become a member of the cathedral council and it was as a churchwarden that he initiated and oversaw the building of the cathedral tower, 1959-61 – as a World War II memorial tower. Later he was appointed Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman.

In 1968 Shuttleworth made himself available for election to public office as a member of the Kimberley City Council, serving on it from that year until 1994.

On Council and in the city he campaigned hard to save the Kimberley City Hall, slated for demolition by Council decision. Ultimately a referendum saved the City Hall and led to its restoration. This is regarded as one of his greatest achievements.

Lawrie Shuttleworth became Mayor of Kimberley for the period 1972 to 1974, with one of the significant events during his term being the conferral of the Freedom of the City upon Mr Harry Oppenheimer, Chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines (4 September 1973).

Shuttleworth championed the establishment of a tram-way for tourists, bringing back into service one of Kimberley’s historic tram cars, to connect the Big Hole with the City Hall (its city terminus being adjacent to a pile of Matopo boulders, a memorial to the 1890 pioneer column that left from the Kimberley Market Square for Fort Salisbury – the memorial being another of Lawrie Shuttleworth’s initiatives). A further project in which he was a prime-mover, threading together his SAAF and Kimberley history/tourism interests, was the Pioneers of Aviation Museum near Alexandersfontein (opened on 18 March 1984).

The Gum Tree Lodge, envisaged as a youth hostel/backpacker facility, to provide affordable accommodation enhancing tourist access to Kimberley, was another brain child of his, in which he was personally involved both in its establishment and its on-going operations.

Shuttleworth was invited to Russia in 2002 when his grand nephew Mark Shuttleworth became the first person from South Africa to be launched into outer space, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft (Mark – whose father was educated at Kimberley Boys’ High School – spent eight days conducting experiments on the International Space Station).

The Rotary Club honoured Lawrie Shuttleworth in 1988 by making him a Paul Harris Fellow – the greatest award a Rotarian may receive. The Kimberley Publicity Association conferred on him a Lifetime-achievement Award, while the Historical Society made him its President. He was a Friend of the McGregor Museum and greatly supported its activities. Lawrie Shuttleworth was honoured as Kimberlite of the Decade at the turn of the century.

As was noted by the Diamond Fields Advertiser at the time of his passing, Shuttleworth achieved more in his one life than most could in several.