Sir Harry Lauder

Genres:	Classical • Easy Listening
Descriptive "tags":	1900s • music hall • turn of the century • phonograph
Decades Active:	1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

4 August 1870, Portobello, near Edinburgh, Scotland, d. 26 February 1950, Strathaven, Scotland. This popular singer, comedian and composer was a minstrel of the British music halls. The son of a potter, Lauder worked in a flax mill, and for 10 years in a coal mine. He made his first stage appearance in 1882, and continued to perform as an amateur, before turning professional in 1894. After touring Scotland in concert parties, he ventured to England, first with appearances in the Newcastle area, and then London, where he made his debut at Gatti’s, Westminster in 1900. A short, stocky, bandy-legged figure, dressed in the tartan kilt complete with sporran, and carrying his ‘crummock’ (a stick with a curved head), Lauder exuded vitality and good humour. He sang his own songs, such as ‘Tobermory’ and ‘The Lass Of Killiecrankie’, and performed a sketch about an Irish tailor named ‘Callaghan’. Despite his Scottish burr amid...

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