Frederick Lawson

Frederick Arthur Lawson was an American police officer from Philadelphia. He is known for being the officer who saved a young Thomas Konju from being killed by thugs. Lawson was killed in the fight with the thugs.

Lawson was born on December 14, 1897 to Arthur and Mary Lawson in Philadelphia. The Lawson family had come to America in 1746 after the Jacobite rising of 1745. The family initially settled in Virginia, but moved up north to Philadelphia in the early 1840s. Lawson was married to Julie Towers in 1920 and joined the city's police department in 1924 and served the department loyally for 30 years. He had one son, John F. Lawson, born in 1926.

In 1954, while patrolling the streets, he noticed screams from an alley, where he witnessed a boy, later to be known as Thomas Konju, being beaten by thugs. Lawson shoved one of the thugs, allowing Konju to escape. He told Konju to hide while he battled the thugs. Konju had been hoping Lawson would take him in, as he had been robbed by the thugs. However, one of the thugs revealed a pistol and shot Lawson twice between the eyes. The thugs escaped and Lawson would die minutes later.