PROFILE

BIOGRAPHY

It is Valentine's day 1968. In a hospital in Wimbledon, a daughter is born to Lord and Lady Henshingly-Croft. Between the ages of three and 11, she is privately tutored at home; she then attends Wimbledon High School for Girls and Gordonstoun. 

At the latter, she discovers a passion for rock-climbing in the mountains of Scotland. She also takes up shooting, but is soon banned for showing "too keen an interest".

By the time she is 18, everyone can see she has a wild streak, but her parents believe that she can be thoroughly civilised - and eventually married off to the Earl of Farringdon - after three years at a Swiss finishing school.

While in Switzerland, however, the young woman takes to extreme skiing and spends a holiday pursuing the sport in the Himalayas. On the return journey, her plane crashes deep in the mountains, and she is the only passenger left alive.

Somehow she manages to survive and, two weeks later, she staggers into a mountain village. By this time, the course of her life has changed. She has learned that she only feels truly alive when traveling alone. Lara Croft has decided to become an adventurer.

Having turned her back on the suffocating upper-class society of her parents - who terminated her monthly allowance in disgust - Lara set about turning herself into a modern-day Indiana Jones. For her first commission as a professional tomb raider, she was hired to retrieve the three parts of a mysterious artefact known as the Atlantean Scion.

Hurtling through Peru, Egypt, Rome and the lost city of Atlantis, Croft negotiated sadistic booby-traps and shot a variety of aggressive wildlife, including rats, tigers and, alarmingly, a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Lifestyle

Despite inheriting the Croft mansion in Surrey she lives the same way she prefers to work – alone. In her rambling home she has installed a custom-built assault course and shooting range. With her unique physical abilities, Lara is certain of being able to break many world athletic records but sees no challenge in this for herself. It lacks the necessary ingredient of danger.

The huge rooms of the mansion are useful for storing the many artifacts she has acquired in her adventures. There is also adequate space for her favorite vehicles. Anything on two wheels over 650 cc’s is considered acceptable but she finds both the Triumph Speed Triple and the Harley V-Rod especially attractive.

Apart from her archeological successes Lara is proud of achievements in other areas too: she has driven the dangerous Alaskan Highway from Tierra del Fuego in South America in record time. 

This little escapade resulted in worldwide headlines confirming the opinion of the established Antiquities community that she was a loose cannon. She loves this profile but generally shuns the media spotlight as it interferes with her Tomb Raiding activities.

And Now…

Events in recent times have cast a shadow over Lara’s life. She went missing presumed dead after a disastrous field trip to the Egyptian tombs with Von Croy. She refuses to confirm or deny rumors about time spent amongst obscure North African tribes but whatever happened after Egypt she has become almost a recluse since her return to the Croft ancestral home in Surrey.

Background

Early Years

Lara was independent and outgoing at school always preferring individual to team sports. Whilst at Gordonstoun she excelled at rock climbing, canoeing, horse riding and archery. A natural athlete she discovered a passion for firearms as an extra-curricula activity but was ‘discouraged’ by the school authorities. 

Later, in her Swiss finishing school, she developed her interest in firearms by charming her way onto the Swiss Armed Forces training range where she proved to be a natural and qualified marksman class. Later in life she felt drawn to fast vehicles and any form of extreme sports, “just to keep me in trim”.

Finding Her Calling

As the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft, Lara was used to the security of an aristocratic background. Predictably she rebelled against the more confining aspects of her upbringing but when she moved to Gordonstoun in 1984 the mountains of Scotland gave her an unprecedented degree of freedom. 

Her world changed further when she came across the work of Professor Werner Von Croy and heard him lecture about his archaeological career. The experience had a profound effect on Lara, triggering a passion for remote locations and adventure.

Her First Field Trip

This set the pattern for the rest of her life. For the first time she experienced the hazards and mysteries of the ancient world of antiquities. Terrifying dangers became an accepted part of her life from then on. In the intervening years she has combated ancient mythical forces, survived a Himalayan plane crash, outgunned heavily armed opponents and always emerged with the prize.

Education

(ages)

(3 - 11)  Private Tutoring

(11 - 16)  Wimbledon High School for Girls

(16 - 18)  Gordonstoun Boarding School

(21-current)  High Adventure...