Sir Harry Lauder
| Sir Harry Lauder | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Henry Lauder 4 August 1870 Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 26 February 1950 (aged 79) Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK |
| Occupation | Music hall comedian & singer |
Sir Henry "Harry" Lauder (/ˈlɔːdər/; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950) was a Scottish music hall and vaudeville theatre singer and comedian, and a substantial landowner.
He was perhaps best known for his long-standing hit "I Love a Lassie" and for his international success. He was described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador!" He became a familiar worldwide figure promoting images like the kilt and the cromach (walking stick) to huge acclaim, especially in America. Other songs followed, including "Roamin' in the Gloamin", "A Wee Deoch-an-Doris", and "The End of the Road".
By 1911, 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.
Lauder was born in his maternal grandfather's house in Bridge Street Portobello, Edinburgh, the eldest of seven children to John Lauder, a Master , and his wife Isabella Urquhart Macleod née McLennan. John Lauder, was a descendent of the feudal barons, the Lauders of the Bass, and Isabella was born in Arbroath to a family from the Black Isle. Lauder's father moved to Newbold, Derbyshire in early 1882 to take up a job designing china, but died of pneumonia on 20 April. Upon his death, Isabella, left short of money (the £15 Life Assurance Policy of her husband not going far), moved the family to Arbroath. Education beyond the age of 11 then requiring payment, Harry worked part-time at the local flax mill to fund that. In 1884 the family moved to live with Harry's maternal uncle, Alexander McLennan, in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, where his uncle found him employment at Eddlewood Colliery at a weekly wage of ten shillings, a job which he maintained for the next decade.
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