Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Bill Lawry
Consequently, the selectors moved Simpson down the order to number six to accommodate Lawry for his Test debut in First Test at Edgbaston. In a drawn match, he made a steady 57 in Australia's only innings of 9/516 declared. Between Tests, he added an even 100 against Kent. His innings in the Second Test at Lord's—dubbed the "Battle of the Ridge"—was described by "Wisden" as "an indomitable effort of sheer graft under severe pressure with the ball flying about". Taking bruising blows from the hostile pace bowling of Fred Trueman and Brian Statham on a pitch with irregular bounce due to the presence of a ridge, Lawry reached 32 at stumps on the first day after England were bowled out for 206. The following day, Australia moved from 4/111 at lunch to 5/183 when Peter Burge was dismissed for 46 with Lawry on 99. Lawry resisted for six hours, to register his maiden Test century of 130, while no other batsman on either side passed 66. It helped Australia to take a match-winning first innings lead, eventually leaving a target in the double figures for the second innings. It was his fifth hundred of the tour, giving him over a thousand runs inside two months. Lawry continued his fine form in the two matches before the next Test, scoring 70 and 35 against Somerset and 122 against Lancashire. In the latter match, he took 1/24 from four overs, his only first-class stint with the ball during the whole tour, and his heaviest bowling workload in a first-class match.