Donald Southam Lawrence was born on November 17, 1928 in East Sheen, London. Don was the third child of Nellie and Herbert Lawrence. He had a sister, two years older than him, called Pamela and a brother, Raymond who was four years older.
His father was a kind man who worked as a clerk at Lloyd's of London, although his mother was a very hard woman who didn't make life easy for her husband or children.

Don didn't look back on a happy childhood. They had to move several times and he never really bonded with his older brother. In 1940 England was at war with Germany and Don moved once again to St. Pauls’, a public school where he remained for the remainder of the conflict and only came home for holidays and Christmas.