Lawrence wrote about his experience in the Scots Guards at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown when, in his moment of victory on the eastern slopes, he was almost killed when a bullet fired by an Argentine sniper tore off the side of his head.
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Lawrence's wound was caused by a 7.62×51mm round passing through the rear of his skull, to emerge at his hairline above his right eye. He lay on the thin cover of snow on the exposed mountaintop for six hours. Airlifted off Tumbledown, Lawrence was left outside a makeshift operating theatre without painkillers. Two days from his 22nd birthday, he assumed he was the last to be operated on because he was the least likely to survive (triage).
Lawrence lost 43% of his brain and was paralysed down one side of his body. He was awarded the Military Cross on 11 October 1982.[8] He was discharged from the army on 14 November 1983. He spent a year in a wheelchair and doctors predicted he would never walk again. He eventually regained most movement although with a slight limp, a paralysed left arm, involuntary muscle contractions and posttraumatic stress disorder.
