Born in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, he volunteered for military service in 1916, enlisting with the Royal Welch Fusiliers before being transferred to the Cheshire Regiment.

During the German spring offensive of 1918 his unit, the 1/4th Battalion the East Yorkshires, was sent to reinforce the line at Béthune.

Lawton, with troops from the Durham Light Infantry, did indeed become isolated in a forward trench during the assault; when they ran out of ammunition and food after three days' fighting, they surrendered.

During World War II, he briefed behind the lines operatives and was listed in The Black Book of key people to be arrested upon a successful Nazi invasion of Britain.

[1] He published a Handbook of French Renaissance Dramatic Theory in 1950, and Poems, Selected with Introduction and Notes (on the work of Joachim du Bellay) in 1961.