Doreen Lawrence

Lawrence was born in Jamaica in 1949.[2] At the age of nine, she emigrated to England. She completed her education in south-east London, before becoming a bank worker. In 1972, she married Neville Lawrence. Together they had three children: Stephen (13 September 1974- 22 April 1993), Stuart, born in 1977 and Georgina, born in 1982.[3] The couple divorced in 1999.[4]

Following the murder of their son Stephen in 1993, Doreen and Neville Lawrence claimed that the Metropolitan Police investigation was not being conducted in a professional manner, citing incompetence and racism as prime flaws.[5] In 1999, after years of campaigning, and with the support of many in the community, the media[6] and politics, a wide-ranging judicial inquiry was established by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary. Chaired by Sir William MacPherson, the inquiry was to investigate the circumstances of Stephen Lawrence's death. The public inquiry was the subject of intense media interest which became international when it concluded that the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally racist"[7] and that this was one of the primary causes of their failure to solve the case.

In the aftermath of the inquiry, Lawrence continued to campaign for justice for her son as well as for other victims of racist crime. She has worked to secure further reforms of the police service. In 2003 she was awarded the OBE[8][9] for services to community relations.

She founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust[10] to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name. Lawrence has been selected to sit on panels within the Home Office[11] and the Police Service, and she is a member of both the board and the council of Liberty,[12] the human rights organisation, as well as being a patron of hate crime charity Stop Hate UK.[13]

In August 2014, Lawrence was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[14]

On 24 April 2020, Lawrence was appointed as Race Relations Advisor to the Labour Party.[15]

On 27 July 2012, Lawrence took part in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, holding the Olympic flag with seven others.

In October 2012, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Pride of Britain Awards.[23]

In April 2014, she was named as Britain's most influential woman in the BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power List 2014.[24]

In May 2014, Lawrence was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award under the Social Driver category for her extensive work with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.[25]

Lawrence was elevated to the peerage as a life peer on 6 September 2013, as Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, of Clarendon in the Commonwealth Realm of Jamaica;[26] the honour is rare for being designated after a location in a Commonwealth realm outside the United Kingdom.[27] She sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as a working peer.[28]

She has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Cambridge,[29] the Open University and the University of West London. She served as Chancellor of De Montfort University in Leicester from 2016 to 2020.[30]

Chris Ofili's 1998 painting No Woman No Cry is a portrait of Doreen Lawrence crying; in each tear is an image of her son Stephen. It was part of Ofili's Turner Prize exhibition, and now hangs in the Tate Gallery.[31]

In 1999, she was portrayed by actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste in the ITV docudrama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence.[32] In 2000, Doreen Lawrence was featured in a double portrait exhibited at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich, London.[33]

Lawrence was the guest subject on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 10 June 2012.[1]

Sons Of Kemet dedicated the song "Your Queen Is A Reptile" to Lawrence among others.[34]

• "The Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon" at Debretts 500.
• Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust website.