Alan James Macgregor Lawson (born 19 May 1948 in

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

) is a former

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

He played for

Edinburgh Wanderers Edinburgh Wanderers is a former rugby union club, founded in 1868. It was latterly a tenant of the Scottish Rugby Union, playing home fixtures at Murrayfield Stadium for nearly 75 years. In 1997 it merged with Murrayfield RFC to form Murrayfi ...

. Lawson stated: 'When I played in the 1970s, Jimmy Thain, the head groundsman, regularly let us play on the international pitch, telling us: The pitch also has to be match fit.' Lawson played for Heriots. In the late 1970s he moved to London Scottish.

Provincial career

He was capped by Edinburgh District. Unusually, he was capped by Scotland before he was capped by a District side. When he moved to London Scottish he represented Anglo-Scots and Middlesex County.

International career

He played scrum-half for

on 15 occasions between 1972 and 1980. He made his test debut for Scotland against France at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen, Saughtonhall and Roseburn. The A8 road (Scotland), A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murra ...

on 15 January 1972 and he played his last match for Scotland against Wales at

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

on 1 March 1980.

Administrative career

Lawson became the 123rd President of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

. He served a one-year term from 2012 to 2013.

Family

He is married to Linda, the daughter of rugby commentator

Bill McLaren William Pollock McLaren (16 October 1923 – 19 January 2010) was a Scottish rugby union commentator, teacher, journalist and one time rugby player. Known as "the voice of rugby", he retired from commentating in 2002. Renowned throughout th ...

. The couple have three children:

Rory Rory is a given name of Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the /''Ruaidhrí'' and /''Ruaraidh'' and is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given name "Rory". The meaning of the name is "red king", composed ...

, who is also a

rugby union international; Gregor, a Scotland 7s international and entrepreneur founding fancy dress company

Morphsuits Morphsuits is a company in Edinburgh, Scotland that distributes branded spandex costumes that cover the entire body, a brand of zentai suit. Offering over 80 different designs, it was founded by brothers Ali and Fraser Smeaton and their flatmate G ...

; and a daughter Lindsay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Alan 1948 births Living people Edinburgh Wanderers players London Scottish F.C. players Middlesex County RFU players Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union Rugby union players from Kirkcaldy Rugby union scrum-halves Scotland international rugby union players Scottish Exiles (rugby union) players Scottish rugby union players