{"id":273319,"date":"2025-07-18T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273319\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:56:14","slug":"hundreds-attend-david-syd-lawrences-emotional-funeral-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273319\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds attend David ‘Syd’ Lawrence’s emotional funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigh Boobyer<\/p>\n

BBC News, West of England<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Lawrence’s son Buster, in the light suit, was one of the pallbearers<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have attended the funeral of former England and Gloucestershire fast bowler David “Syd” Lawrence in Bristol.<\/p>\n

Lawrence, the first British-born black cricketer to represent England, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2024 and died last month at the age of 61.<\/p>\n

Family, friends, and former teammates from both Gloucestershire and England, along with members of the public, gathered to remember him<\/a> at St Mary Redcliffe Church on Friday.<\/p>\n

An emotional Phil Tufnell, Lawrence’s friend and former England teammate, said Lawrence was “someone who you wanted on your side”.<\/p>\n

“[He was a] larger-than-life character and filled the room when he came in. We had some great laughs along the way,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He had this great big deep voice. He’d always say hello to everyone. It’s sad that he had to go.”<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

David ‘Syd’ Lawrence died last month<\/p>\n

Lawrence’s son, Buster, described his dad as “a loving man” with “so much love to give”. <\/p>\n

“For me, for all the accolades – not that they don’t mean anything to me – but he was my dad first and foremost,” he said. <\/p>\n

“He did such a great job being a dad that if you took all that away he would still be the best dad to me and the best friend.”<\/p>\n

He added that behind the “hard, big exterior” his dad would do anything for the people he cared about.<\/p>\n

\"Buster<\/p>\n

Buster Lawrence said his dad had “so much love to give”<\/p>\n

Revd Rupert Martin led the funeral, with the hymns including the well-known ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’.<\/p>\n

A eulogy was read by George Orchard, followed by family tributes from Shauna Mighty and Bev Powell, Alice Lawrence and Buster – Lawrence’s son.<\/p>\n

The Bristol Reggae Windrush Choir, which performed outside the church before the service began, also sang during the service.<\/p>\n

Current Gloucestershire Head Coach and former teammate Mark Alleyne said afterwards: “The service was wonderful.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] really proud to have known him and so glad he’s touched so many lives.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Bristol Reggae Windrush Choir performed a moving song before the service started<\/p>\n

The funeral was followed by a wake at the County Ground in north Bristol.<\/p>\n

Lawrence, affectionally known as “Syd”, was given an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours weeks before he died for outstanding services to cricket.<\/p>\n

He played five Test matches for England and took 625 wickets in 280 matches during a 16-year career at Gloucestershire, where he grew up.<\/p>\n

After retirement he became a nightclub owner and amateur bodybuilder before being named Gloucestershire’s club president in 2022, a role he remained in until his death.<\/p>\n

Former cricketer Andy Brassington said he was with Lawrence, who he was friends with for more than 44 years, just an hour before his death.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the church, Mr Brassington added he “has lost a best mate”.<\/p>\n

“It was a difficult situation for us all, and it was time for Syd to go. But right until the end was there he was positive.”<\/p>\n

\"Dozens<\/p>\n

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral in Bristol city centre<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ali Durden, Ed Hadwin and James Diamond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Boobyer BBC News, West of England BBC Lawrence’s son Buster, in the light suit, was one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114876946332354825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}