Lawrence Kent Meade was born on June 14, 1911, in Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. He was the son of Chester Lawrence Meade and Rena V. Ikenberry Larson. He was married to Betsy Burgess Meade. He attended St. James Military Academy in Faribault, Minnesota. Aspiring to attend West Point, he joined the Iowa National Guard, passed the entrance examination, and entered the U.S. Military Academy on July 1, 1930, and graduated on June 12, 1934. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Field Artillery. His first assignment was with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Horse-drawn Field Artillery at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

In October 1936, Captain Lawrence K. Meade was assigned to the 13th Motorized Field Artillery at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where he served for six months before taking a new post at Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii. In January 1939, Meade attended the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was assigned to the 18th Field Artillery. Later that year, seeking to expand his expertise, he transferred to the Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft). In December 1939, he joined the 69th Coast Artillery (AA) at Fort Crockett, Texas, where he earned command of his own battery. The following year, he moved with the regiment to Camp Hulen, Texas, serving as an instructor for newly inducted National Guard regiments converting to anti-aircraft artillery.

On November 1, 1941, Cpt Meade sailed to the Philippine Islands to serve as an anti-aircraft instructor with the Philippine National Army. Only a week after his arrival, war broke out. Despite suffering from dengue fever, he returned to action on Bataan, where he commanded a 155 mm battery in the 313th Field Artillery (Philippine Scouts). He was seriously wounded before the fall of Bataan and was hospitalized when U.S. forces surrendered in April 1942. Captured by the Japanese, Meade endured many months of hardship as a prisoner of war before dying of malaria in a POW camp in the Philippines on September 24, 1942.

Cpt Meade is now buried in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. He also has a cenotaph in the First Congregational UCC Columbarium, Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, alumni.westpointaog.org, weremember.abmc.gov