Harry Lauder
Sir Harry Lauder was a Scottish singer, comedian and actor. Popular in both music hall and vaudeville theatre traditions; he achieved international success.
He was described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador", who "by his inspiring songs and valiant life, rendered measureless service to the Scottish race and to the British Empire". He became a familiar worldwide figure deploying his kilt and cromach as icons of Scottishness to huge acclaim, especially in America. Among his most popular songs were "Roamin' in the Gloamin'", "A Wee Deoch-an-Doris", "The End of the Road" and, a particularly big hit for him, "I Love a Lassie".
Lauder's understanding of life, its pathos and joys, earned him his popularity. Beniamino Gigli commended his singing voice and clarity. Lauder usually performed in full Highland regalia—kilt, sporran, tam o' shanter, and twisted walking stick, and sang Scottish-themed songs. By 1911 Lauder had become the highest-paid performer in the world, and was the first artist from both Britain and Scotland to sell a million records; by 1928 he had sold double that. He raised vast amounts of money for the war effort during the First World War, for which he was knighted by George V in 1919. He went into semi-retirement in the mid-1930s, but briefly emerged to entertain troops in the Second World War. By the late 1940s he was suffering from long periods of ill-health; he died in his native Scotland in 1950.
Early life
Lauder was born on 4 August 1870 in his maternal grandfather's house in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest of seven children. By the time of the 1871 census he and his parents were living at 1 Newbigging Veitchs Cottages, Inveresk. His father, John Lauder, was the grandson of George Lauder of Inverleith Mains & the St Bernard's Well estate, Edinburgh. He claimed in his autobiography that his family were descendants of the feudal barons the Lauders of the Bass; and his mother, Isabella Urquhart MacLeod née McLennan, was born in Arbroath to a family from the Black Isle. John and Isabella married on 26 August 1870. Lauder's father moved to Newbold, Derbyshire, in early 1882 to take up a job designing porcelain, but died on 20 April from pneumonia. Isabella, left with little more than John's life insurance proceeds of £15, moved with the children to be with her family in Arbroath. To finance his education beyond age 11, Harry worked part-time at a flax mill. He made his first public appearance, singing, at a variety concert at Oddfellows' Hall in Arbroath when he was 13 years old, winning first prize for the night.In 1884 the family went to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, to live with Isabella's brother, Alexander, who found Harry employment at Eddlewood Colliery at ten shillings per week; he kept this job for a decade.
Career
Miner
On 8 January 1910, the Glasgow Evening Times reported that Lauder had told the New York World that, during his mining career:I was entombed once for 6 long hours. It seemed like 6 years. There were no visible means of getting out either – we had just to wait. I was once right next to a cave-in when my fire boss was buried alive. As we were working and chatting a big stone twice as big as a trunk came tumbling down on my mate from overhead, doubling him like a jack-knife. It squeezed his face right down on the floor. God knows I wasn't strong enough to lift that rock alone, but by superhuman efforts I did. This gave him a chance to breathe and then I shouted. Some men 70 yards away heard me and came and got him out alive. A chap who worked beside me was killed along with 71 others at Udston, and all they could identify him with was his pin leg. I wasn't there that day.
Lauder said he was "proud to be old coal-miner" and in 1911, became an outspoken advocate, "pleading the cause of the poor pit ponies" to Winston Churchill, when introduced to him at the House of Commons and later reported to the Tamworth Herald that he "could talk for hours about my wee four-footed friends of the mine. But I think I convinced that the time has now arrived when something should be done by the law of the land to improve the lot and working conditions of the patient, equine slaves who assist so materially in carrying on the great mining industry of this country."Performer
Lauder often sang to the miners in Hamilton, 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. She advised him to gain experience by touring music halls around the country with a concert party, which he did. The tour allowed him to quit the coal mines and become a professional singer. Lauder concentrated his repertoire on comedic routines and songs of Scotland and Ireland.
By 1894, Lauder had turned professional and performed local characterisations at small, Scottish and northern English music halls but had ceased the repertoire by 1900. In March of that year, Lauder travelled to London and reduced the heavy dialect of his act which according to a biographer, Dave Russell, "handicapped Scottish performers in the metropolis". He was an immediate success at the Charing Cross Music Hall and the London Pavilion, venues at which the theatrical paper The Era reported that he had generated "great furore" among his audiences with three of his self-composed songs.1900–1914
In 1905 Lauder's success in leading the Howard & Wyndham pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, for which he wrote I Love a Lassie, made him a national star, and he obtained contracts with Sir Edward Moss and others. Lauder then made a switch from music hall to variety theatre and undertook a tour of America in 1907. The following year, he performed a private show before Edward VII at Sandringham, and in 1911, he again toured the United States where he commanded $1,000 a night.
In 1912, he was top of the bill at Britain's first ever Royal Command Performance, in front of King George V, organised by Alfred Butt. Lauder undertook world tours extensively during his forty-year career, including 22 trips to the United States—for which he had his own railway train, the Harry Lauder Special, and made several trips to Australia, where his brother John had emigrated.
Lauder was, at one time, the highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of £12,700 a night plus expenses. He was paid £1125 for an engagement at the Glasgow Pavilion Theatre in 1913 and was later considered by the press to earn one of the highest weekly salaries by a theatrical performer during the prewar period. In January 1914 he embarked on a tour that included the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.First World War
The First World War broke out while Lauder was visiting Australia. During the war Lauder promoted recruitment into the services and starred in many concerts for troops at home and abroad. Campaigning for the war effort in 1915, he then wrote "I know that I am voicing the sentiment of thousands and thousands of people when I say that we must retaliate in every possible way regardless of cost. If these German savages want savagery, let them have it".
Following the December 1916 death of his son on the Western Front; Lauder led successful charity fundraising efforts, organised a recruitment tour of music halls and entertained troops in France with a piano. He travelled to Canada in 1917 on a fundraising exercise for the war, where, on 17 November he was guest-of-honour and speaker at the Rotary Club of Toronto Luncheon, when he raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars' worth of bonds for Canada's Victory Loan. Through his efforts in organising concerts and fundraising appeals he established the charity, the Harry Lauder Million Pound Fund, for maimed Scottish soldiers and sailors, to help servicemen return to health and civilian life; and he was knighted in May 1919 for Empire service during the War.Postwar years
After the First World War, Lauder continued to tour variety theatre circuits. In January 1918, he famously visited Charlie Chaplin, and the two leading comedy icons of their time acted in a short film together.
His final tour was in North America in 1932. He made plans for a new house at Strathaven, to be built over the site and ruin of an old manor, called Lauder Ha'. He was semi-retired in the mid-1930s, until his final retirement was announced in 1935. He briefly emerged from retirement to entertain troops during the Second World War and make wireless broadcasts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.Australia
Possibly Lauder's strongest connections were with Australia. Both Lauder, his wife and son, brother Matt and his wife, were all in Australia when World War I broke out. Their brother John had already emigrated, about 1906, to Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, and Matt's eldest son John would also emigrate there in 1920. Lauder wrote that "every time I return to Australia I am filled with genuine enthusiasm.....it is one of the very greatest countries in the world."
Lauder was next in Australia in 1919, arriving at Sydney on 1 March on board the Oceanic Steamship Company's liner S.S. Ventura, from San Francisco, and he was in situ at the Hotel Australia when he was formally notified that he was to be knighted upon his return to Britain. His next visit was in 1923 when his brother John was on hand in Sydney, with their nephew John, to welcome Lauder, his wife and her brother Tom Vallance, after a four-year absence from Australia. He visited and stayed with his brother John in Newcastle on several occasions, two well-known visits being in 1925, when he gave several performances at Newcastle's Victoria Theatre for three weeks commencing on 8 August, and again in 1929 arriving in Newcastle for a brief visit on 25 July. Lauder departed Sydney for the USA on board the liner SS Ventura on Saturday 27 July 1929, a ship he was familiar with. In 1934–5, his brother John spent 10 months with him in Scotland.