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Lawrence was born in Dublin , the son of a retired Indian Army Colonel , and was brought up in County Wicklow . He attended Ampleforth College and won an Exhibition to read English at Queens' College, Cambridge , being awarded his BA in 1969 and his MA in 1970. In the 1970s, he taught English at St. Benedict's School at Ealing Abbey , a Roman Catholic Independent School . On 10 February 1973 , he married Frances Huntley, a fellow teacher at the school; they had three daughters and a son. Lawrence later became the Head of English at Gunnersbury Boys' School in Brentford , and later the headmaster of a Comprehensive School in Lambeth . In 1993, he was appointed Headmaster of St. George's Roman Catholic School , Maida Vale in North London, regarded as a rough school with poor exam results. He improved the academic reputation of the school, but problems with violence continued. The Wo-Sing-Wo gang, which was mainly Filipino , aspired to be a junior version of the Triad s. Twelve of the gang's members, led by 15-year old Learco Chindamo, a pupil at another school who claimed to be a Triad member, went to St. George's school on 8 December , 1995 , to "punish" a 13-year old boy who had quarrelled with a Filipino pupil. Lawrence saw them attack the boy with an iron bar and went outside to remonstrate with the gang. Chindamo punched him and then stabbed him in the chest, and he died in hospital that evening. Chindamo was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in October 1996, after a unanimous decision by the jury, and jailed indefinitely (as he was a juvenile at the time). He has always claimed that he was the victim of mistaken identity, and that the real killer was another boy who had borrowed his jacket, although he does not deny that he was present. On 10 October , 1997 , however, he lost his appeal. He was also a suspect in the non-fatal stabbing of a man named John Mills (not the actor) during a Mugging in Camden several months before Lawrence's death. The '' Philip Lawrence Awards '' were instituted by Home Secretary Michael Howard in Lawrence's honour, and were first presented on 15 March , 1997 . They honour outstanding achievement by young people aged between 11 and 20. EXTERNAL LINK
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