Brigadier Richard (Dick) Lawler was educated at Katanning Senior High School and Aquinas College, Perth. He entered the Army as an Officer Cadet at the Officer Cadet School, Portsea and was allocated to the Royal Australian Artillery on graduation in June 1966. After Corps training, Brigadier Lawler was posted to 4th Field Regiment and served with that unit on active service in South Vietnam as a Forward Observation Officer in rifle companies of the 7th and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Australian Regiment. This was followed by postings to the 28th Commonwealth Brigade, Far East land Force at Terendak Garrison, Malaysia, as a gun position officer with 14th Light Regiment, Royal Artillery. He was promoted to lieutenant during this time. After the withdrawal of the British forces from the Far East in 1969 he was posted to 108th Field Battery (Independent) at Selarang Garrison, Singapore.
On return to Australia in September 1970 he was promoted to Captain and posted to the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion at Puckapunyal as a Training Company Second-In-Command. This was followed by a posting to Headquarters Puckapunyal Area as a Staff Captain (Accommodation and Works). In 1972 he returned to regimental duty with 4th Field Regiment serving as Adjutant andBattery Commander. On promotion to Major in January 1977 he was posted as the Training Officer of 23rd Field Regiment. This was followed by an exchange posting as an instructor at the UK Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill from October 1977 to November 1979. He attended the Australian Staff College in 1980. Following this Brigadier Lawler was posted to Headquarters Training Command in January 1981 and served as a Staff Officer Grade 2 in Doctrine Branch. His main responsibility was managing the production of publications in the Manual of Land Warfare Part Two for the Armoured, Artillery, Engineers and Aviation Corps.
On 12 May 1984 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted as Staff Officer Grade One (Operations) on the Divisional Artillery Headquarters Staff at Headquarters 1st Division, Enoggera. His final appointment in the Australian Regular Army was as the Project Director of the AUSTACCS Testbed in Enoggera for phase two of that project throughout 1986 and 1987.
On 21 December 1987 he transferred to the Part-Time Army and was posted to the Reserve Command and Staff College: initially as a tactics instructor in 1988/89, then as Chief Instructor from 1990 to 1994. On 5 April 1994 he was promoted to Colonel and appointed asDirector Army Personnel Agency-Perth. He was then appointed Commander 5th TrainingGroup on 29 April 1996. On 10 January 1998 he was promoted to Brigadier and assumed the appointment of Commander 13th Brigade until December 2000. He was appointed as the Colonel Commandant RAA Western Region with effect 1 June 2001. |
