Family :

Education & Career :

John Currie Lauder went up to Jesus College in October 1910 having attended the City of London School.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

11 January - 13 March 1917. Operations on the Ancre concerned the gradual advance in the area around Miramont during which the Germans retired towards the Hindenburg Line defences.

Detail :

Jesus College further note: "Lauder was apparently in Australia when war broke out, he returned almost immediately and joined the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. He was injured three times, firstly at Festubert, then when he returned to the front he was again invalided home after being gassed and had only just returned to the front after being injured again when he was killed in December 1916. According to a newspaper report the theatre where his father was performing cancelled both the matinee and evening performances when the news came through. His father was prostrated with grief: "Father and son were passionately devoted to each other and the famous comedian is heartbroken". The same newspaper report also says that he was also engaged to Mildred Thomson, daughter of a Scottish farmer."

He embarked for France 1st May 1915.

Sir Harry Lauder's own account of his son's death: "It was about eight o'clock one morning that my boy John was killed, between Courcellete and Pozieres, on the Ancre, in the region that is known as the Somme battlefield. It was soon after breakfast, and John was going about, seeing to his men. His company was to be relieved that day, and to go back from the trenches to rest billets behind the lines. We has sent our laddie a braw lot of Christmas packages not long before, but he had had them kept at the rest billet, so that he might have the pleasure of opening them when he was out of the trenches, and had a little leisure, even though it made his Christmas presents a wee bit late. There had been a little mist upon the ground, as, at that damp and chilly season of the year, there nearly always was along the river Ancre. At that time, on that morning, it was just beginning to rise as the sun grew strong enough to banish it. I think John trusted too much to the mist, perhaps. He stepped for just a moment into the open; for just a moment he exposed himself, as he had to do, no doubt, to do his duty. And a German sniper, watching for just such chances, caught a glimpse of him. His rifle spoke; its bullet pierced John's brave and gentle heart. Tate, John's body-servant, a man from our own town, was the first to reach him. Tate was never far from John's side, and he was heart-broken when he reached him that morning and found that there was nothing he could do for him. Many of the soldiers who served with John have written to me, and come to me. And all of them have told me the same thing: that there was not a man in his company who did not feel his death as a personal loss and bereavement. And his superior officers have told me the same thing. In so far as such reports could comfort us, his mother and I have taken solace in them. All that we have heard of John's life in the trenches and of his death, was such a report as we or any parents would want to have of their boy. John never lost his rare good nature. There were times when things were going very badly indeed, but at such times he could always be counted upon to raise a laugh and uplift the spirits of his men. He knew them all; he knew them well. Nearly all of them came from his home region near the Clyde, and so they were his neighbours and friends."

The account continues for some time in this vein, giving examples of his life with his men, and how soldiers continued for some time to go to the family house in Dunoon to pay their respects. Perhaps coloured with a rosy glow by his father, but perhaps difficult to believe that it's all fabrication!

See also: A celebration of Sir Harry Lauder by Ed Dixon:

"While researching his play, House claimed to have been visited, separately, by two ‘independent’ witnesses to the shooting of John Lauder whose stories matched. The gist of their accounts was that John Lauder insisted that, when an enemy trench was taken, all its occupants were to be shot and this was what had happened just prior to his death. He had led a successful assault, presumably had all survivors shot and, delighted with his success, was dancing a Highland Fling on the parapet when he was downed by a German sniper. Well, at least it was a Hun who had done the deed, not one of his own. But young Lauder still comes out of it, or, rather, didn’t come out of it, looking a proper Charlie.

Objection Number One – Why would any officer order total annihilation of prisoners when everybody knew that they were in great demand as sources of intelligence with consequent kudos to said officer? Also such a policy would bring with it inevitable and reciprocal retaliation by the enemy. Undoubtedly prisoners on all sides were shot out of hand but this was in the heat of combat. You only have to study the many photos taken at the time of German prisoners being used as stretcher bearers and in other non-combatant roles on their way back to the British rear areas to realise this was not a general policy. Was Lauder so much out of touch with reality that he was waging his own, personal war with his own rules? Highly unlikely.

Objection Number Two - John Lauder may or may not have been an unpopular officer but he was definitely an experienced one and dancing about on battlefields would not be part of his repertoire. Playing the piano in the rest areas, maybe, but jigging at the front…..?

So what are we to make of this ‘evidence’? I’m quite happy with the German sniper bit but common sense dictates that the leaping about is a bit far-fetched. Good publicity for the play, though, and wasn’t it Jack the Lad himself who stated that he “never let a concern for facts get in his way if there was a good story to be told "?

Nevertheless, some good did come from setting this particular hare running. At least the culprit had been identified as a German sniper, not one of the 8th Argylls. There followed some lively correspondence in the Herald which revealed how different witnesses can interpret ‘facts’ in totally different ways especially when they’re enveloped in the twin fogs of war and failing memory."


Probate LAUDER John Curie of Lauderdale Dunson captain 1/8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders died 28 December 1916 Confirmation of Harry Lauder. Sealed London 28 March.

Masonic :

John was initiated into Musgrave Lodge No. 1597 and is listed as a Lieutenant in H.M. Army, resident at Bedford. The contribution register of the Lodge held at the United Grand Lodge of England does not record his war service, but shows him "Killed in Action Jan/17)", the news evidently reaching Grand Lodge later than his actual date of death.

A further note about LAUDER, Sir Harry (1870 - 1950):
Initiated into Freemasonry in Lodge Dramatic, No. 571 (Glasgow). Born in Bridge Street, Portobello few miles east of Edinburgh. He was the son of a potter, with the surname MacLennan. As a boy he worked 12 hour shifts in a flax mill in Arbroath and as a teenager worked as a pitboy then coalminer for 10 years in Hamilton. His son, John, was killed in action during World War I and that inspired him to write the song; "Keep Right on to the End of the Road". He represents a classic example of a working class Scot who became a Freemason long before he became famous. His is therefore much in the mold of Brother Robert Burns* (1759 - 1769.)

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley