The College Record 2022

Obituaries
Landry of Shediac, Victorine Landry of Shediac, Antoinette Landry of Moncton and
Florine Landry of Shediac; one grand-daughter, Sarah, as well as many nieces and
nephews. He was predeceased by five siblings: Thérèse Landry, Clorice, Antoine,
Gérald and Raymond.
RUSSELL LAWSON
Russell Lawson was born in Northern Ireland and educated
at The Methodist College Belfast. He went up to Oxford, to
The Queen’s College, to read Law in 1962, a time when it
was by no means usual for a pupil from an Ulster grammar
school to achieve Oxbridge admission.
As an undergraduate, Russell greatly enjoyed being a
member of The Queen’s College community; he made long-lasting friendships and
developed an enduring love for the city itself, where, in fact, he was to spend most
of his life.
After graduation, Russell moved east, to take a degree in Land Economy at Pembroke
College Cambridge. It was here that he met Alette Konijnenbelt, who had come
from The Netherlands to work in Addenbrooke’s Hospital. After their marriage, they
moved to The Netherlands, to Zeeland, where Russell researched the redistribution
of land following the 1953 floods, after the completion of the Delta Works. Back in
England, he worked as a legal adviser to the National Farmers’ Union – a job whose
lighter moments involved periodically informing the BBC of current concerns in the
agricultural community so that these could be reflected in episodes of The Archers!
But Oxford continued to beckon and, when, in the mid-1970s, Russell was offered a
position at the new Oxford campus of the Ecole des Affaires de Paris, he and Alette,
three-year-old Drummond and their nine-month old twins, Charles and Anna, moved
to a house in North Oxford, where they remained for 25 years. In the 1990s, Russell
became a lecturer in Land Law at De Montfort University, Milton Keynes and later
at Oxford Brookes University – perhaps the work he enjoyed most, showing himself
to be an excellent teacher.
Retirement provided the opportunity to become more involved again with The
Queen’s College. He attended many of the social occasions offered to him, which
also made it possible to meet old friends. He was also now able to pursue his love of
military history, particularly that of Germany and Austria-Hungary – he himself came
from a military background – and, until, sadly, COVID-19 and ill-health intervened, to
explore continental Europe. For Russell, an Ulsterman with a proud Scottish heritage,
was, above all, a European – by inclination, by education and through his marriage.
He was saddened by Brexit, which he saw as a severance from European culture.
114 The Queen’s College | College Record 2022