Thomas Lawrenson started his education at Stanhope Road Council School in 1908. At the age of 12, he entered the South Shields High School for Boys, which he left in 1922 to go to Christ Church College, Oxford.

In 1926 he was awarded his BA (Hons) in Pure and Applied Mathematics, and he completed a year's post-graduate course to gain his Diploma in Education. When he left Oxford, in 1927, he taught Mathematics at Bromsgrove School for just over a year, moving to Wolverhamptom Grammar School in January, 1929. In January, 1932, he moved to London to teach at the Sir Walter St John's School, in Battersea, where he stayed until December, 1956.

In January, 1957, he returned to South Shields to be with his sister, who was in ill-health, joining the staff of South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys where he remained until his retirement in 1963.

Tom Lawrenson was one of three cousins (Andrew Lawrenson and Bill Hunter being the other two) who taught at the SSGTSFB, and several of the following two generations continue in the teaching profession..