Tina Lawton

Christine Elizabeth "Tina" Lawton (23 March 1944 – 24 December 1968) was a South Australian folk singer and recording artist.

History

Lawton was born in Adelaide, a daughter of Edgar Vincent Lawton (1908–1990), a pharmacist and executive with Birks Chemists, and Kathleen Elsie Lawton, née Magarey, (1908–1997) of "Miramar", 3 Hilda Terrace, Hawthorn, South Australia, and was brought up in an affluent middle-class surroundings in a musically talented family. Her mother had a good voice, and was frequently called on to sing at functions.[1] She was a granddaughter of Sylvanus James Magarey; the immunologist John William Magarey Lawton (born 1939) was a brother.

Lawton was educated at Unley Girls' Technical High School[lower-alpha 1] and, in 1961, the South Australian School of Arts.[5]

She made early appearances on Adelaide television in the programs The Country and Western Hour (often in duet with host Roger Cardwell), the Marie Tomasetti Show, and Lionel Williams' Adelaide Tonight.[6] She appeared at Tony Bowden's "Catacombs"[lower-alpha 2] and other coffee lounges during the "folk song" boom of the early 1960s. She appeared at an Elder Park concert during the 1966 Adelaide Festival of Arts. She appeared in a two-woman show with Glen Tomasetti at John Edmund's Theatre 62.[lower-alpha 3] In 1967 she sang for the Australian troops in Saigon. Leaving Vietnam, she settled in Glasgow, Scotland, where she attended the School of Arts.[6]

During the Christmas holidays of 1968 she holidayed with some friends in Kenya, and while there took a flight into the crater of Mount Longonot. The plane crashed into the inner wall of the volcano, and Lawton, her friend Chris Paul, and pilot Graham Wright were killed instantly.[6]

Recordings

Lawton recorded three albums:

  • Tina Lawton (December 1965) CBS Australia
  • The Singing Bird (May 1966) CBS Australia
  • Fair & Tender (March 1967) CBS Australia

Biography
  • Kathleen Lawton (1974) The Singing Bird: Tina Lawton's Story ISBN 0859100138 "Advertising". Victor Harbour Times. Vol. 73, no. 3, 228. South Australia. 4 July 1984. p. 29. Retrieved 26 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia. Kathleen was Tina's mother.

Notes
  1. Not to be confused with Unley High School, Unley Girls' Technical High School was a government school to Intermediate level, located off Unley Road, offering a mix of technical and commercial subjects. Students at Unley Girls' Technical High School included part-Aboriginal girls from Colebrook Home and Tanderra Aboriginal Hostel at Parkside, notably Lois O'Donoghue), and Doris, sister of Doreen Kartinyeri. Many graduates went on to training as nurses at the RAH. It must be presumed this was Lawton's choice of school, as children of executives would usually attend one of Adelaide's prestigious private schools.[2] Her brother John went to Prince Alfred College.[3][4] According to the biography The Singing Bird, written by her mother, Tina quit her private school for the less academic and more arts-based environment of the "Tech".[5]
  2. In the basement, "Romilly House", 1 North Terrace, Hackney
  3. A "little theatre" at 143 Burbridge Road, Hilton

References
  1. "About People". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 96, no. 29, 683. South Australia. 1 December 1953. p. 8. Retrieved 26 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. Veronica Brodie, as told to Mary-Anne Gale. My Side of the Bridge.
  3. ""Spirit Behind School Is Worth Preserving"". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 94, no. 29, 073. South Australia. 15 December 1951. p. 14. Retrieved 2 October 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "'Unselfish Service' Need to Country". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 97, no. 30, 009. South Australia. 18 December 1954. p. 9. Retrieved 2 October 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. Kathleen Lawton (1974). The Singing Bird: Tina Lawton's Story. ISBN 0859100138.
  6. Cora Dove (1986). The First 25 Years of Television in South Australia. p. 16.
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