George Alfred Lawrence was born at Buxted, Sussex, the eldest child of Rev.
[4] George and Mary had at least two sons: He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1852, but soon abandoned the law for literature.
[5] In 1857 he published anonymously a first novel, Guy Livingstone, "portraying a more violent picture of Rugby School than Thomas Hughes.
He went on to write several more tales in what has been called the "muscular school" of novel-writing,[6] introducing into English fiction a beau sabreur type of hero, great in sport and love and war.
[6] On the outbreak of the American Civil War Lawrence went to America with the intention of joining the Confederate Army.