Old Photograph Harry Lauder Scotland

Old photograph of Harry Lauder who was born on 4 August 1870 in Portobello in Edinburgh, Scotland. Harry was the eldest of seven children to John Lauder, a potter, and his wife Isabelle née Macleod. John Lauder, was a descendent of Lauders of the Bass, and Isabella was born in Arbroath in Angus, to a family from the Black Isle. Lauder's father moved to Newbold, Derbyshire, England, in 1882 to take up a job designing china, but died of pneumonia later that year. Upon his death, Isabella moved the family to Arbroath and Harry worked part-time at the local flax. The following year he moved independently to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire where he was employed as a miner, a job which he maintained for the next decade. On 19 June 1891, at age 21, Lauder married Ann, daughter of James Vallance, a colliery manager in Hamilton. At around that time, Lauder initiated a singing career and gained a reasonable reputation as a singer and comedian with local concert parties. To pass the time, Lauder sang to fellow miners who encouraged him to perform in local music halls. While singing in nearby Larkhall, he received 5 shillings, the first time he was paid for singing. He received further engagements including a weekly " go as you please " night held by Mrs. Christina Baylis at her Scotia Music Hall, Metropole Theatre in Glasgow. By the 1900s, Lauder had become the highest paid performer in the world, and was the first Scottish artist to sell a million records. He raised vast amounts of money for the war effort during World War I, for which he was subsequently knighted in 1919. He went into semi retirement in the mid 1930s, but briefly emerged to entertain troops in World War II. By the late 1940s he was suffering from long periods of ill health and died in Scotland in 1950.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.