Peter Lawler

A member of the Richmond Canoe Club since 1960, Peter Lawler competed at the 1964, 1968, and 1972 Olympics and reached the semi-finals in the first of those two years. Firstly, with the kayak fours at Tokyo, and then with Mark Whitby in the kayak pairs at Mexico City.

Lawler first attracted attention in 1961 when he won the junior section doubles of the famous 125-mile Devizes to Westminster race in record time with fellow Richmond member Bob Still. Ten years later Lawler won the senior doubles title with Christopher Baker. Lawler later joined Elmbridge Canoe Club in Surrey, where he also coached. Still racing at the age of 57, however, he helped them win the British National Club Championship for the third consecutive year.

It was during his time as a coach at Elmbridge, when he was in his late-40s, that he committed an indecent assault on a young girl. The details never came out until some years later, and at Guildford Crown Court in 2012 the then 71-year-old Lawler was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years after being convicted on one charge of indecent assault following perverted conduct towards a young girl, which began when she was just 13. The judge gave him leniency and Lawler avoided a custodial sentence because of his circumstances at the time. He was wheelchair bound following a horse-riding accident in 2008, which left him paraplegic and suffering from depression.

Lawler´s brother Roland was also a canoeist but was better known as a coach, and Peter was the uncle of the Olympic rowers Ivan and Janine Lawler. Ivan also won five Canoe Marathon World Championships gold medals. Peter was also the one-time coach to the Olympian Lucy Perrett. In addition to rowing and coaching, Peter Lawler was a director of his own company, Lawler Engineering Limited, in East Molesey, Surrey.