He died on 13 March 1920 and is buried in Lodge Hill Cemetery near Birmingham. He married Janet Sanderson in 1869. His son Arthur Lapworth became a renowned chemist and his son Herbert a civil engineer, engineering geologist, stratigrapher and palaeontologist. Lapworth received many awards for his work and contributions to geology. In June 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1891 was awarded their Royal Medal. In 1899, he received the highest award of the Geological Society of London, the Wollaston Medal, in recognition of his outstanding work in the Southern Uplands, and Northwest Highlands of Scotland. There years later, in February 1902, he was elected President of the Geological Society for the years 1902–1904. The glacial Lake Lapworth, was named for him by Leonard Johnston Wills in recognition of his original suggestion of its existence in 1898. Aberdeen University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1884 and Glasgow University in 1912 (both LLD). In 1916 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Papers relating to Charles Lapworth can be found at the University of Birmingham Special Collections. The University of Birmingham also maintains the Lapworth Museum of Geology within the Aston Webb building on the main Edgbaston campus. The Lapworth Archive, housed in the museum, contains a remarkably complete record of all areas of his research work and teaching.