It’s November 1992, and Eric Lawes is trudging around British farmland in search of a missing hammer. Then, all of a sudden, his metal detector starts going haywire. As Lawes begins digging into the ground, though, it isn’t the lost tool that he finds. No, the metal detectorist has just uncovered an incredible haul of Roman artifacts. And the discovery will change his life forever.
Eric Lawes was born on May 1, 1923, in Hoxne in Suffolk, England. He had two siblings and was raised by his mom, Florence, and dad, Joseph. His father worked as a gamekeeper, but it seems that Lawes had a modest upbringing. Indeed, he reportedly grew up in poverty, with little in the way of a formal education.
You see, Lawes’ formative years fell between World Wars I and II. And this interwar period was a tough time for nearly everyone in Britain – even those living in rural areas that one might have imagined would have been less affected by conflict. Indeed, in villages such as the one where Lawes grew up, many children didn’t attend school and were instead educated outside the walls of the classroom.