LAUDER, Harry (real name MACLEN NAN), Scottish singer: b. Portobello, 4 Aug. 1870. He was employed in a flax-spinning mill when a boy and later worked in the coal mines. His natural talent for music and gift for entertaining soon won him considerable reputation as an amateur entertainer and he chose the stage as a profession. His first tours were of Scotland and Ireland, but he appeared in London in the early nineties and speedily be came a great favorite. His first tour of the United States was made in 1907 and was phenomenally successful. He toured the coun try repeatedly afterward, always enthusiastic ally welcome. He toured Australia and New Zealand in 1914 and returning to England threw himself whole-heartedly into the recruit ing service. He organized and personally paid the expenses of a band of Scottish pipers which became famous and himself toured Eng land in the work of recruiting. Later, after many difficulties, he secured government per mission to sing on the actual firing line and in the front line trenches in France. While generally regarded as a comedian, his songs and characterizations range from those of rollicking humor to the tenderest tributes to home, love and country. After the death of
his only child, Capt. John Lauder, at the front in France 28 Dec. 1916, Lauder for a time re fused to return to the stage, but the call was so insistent that he obeyed it. After his first visit to the front he organized the "Harry Lauder Million 'Pound Fund for Maimed Men, Scottish Soldiers and Sailors.' Lord Roseberry is honorary president of the fund and Lord Balfour is its secretary. The pur pose of the fund is to present the maimed soldiers and sailors of Scotland with a suf ficient amount to establish them in business or in a suitable calling, not as a charity, but as an acknowledgment of their country's debt. Both words and music of Lauder's songs are his own composition and include many that are widely popular. Among them are in the Gloamin" ; 'Wee Hoose Amang the Heather> ; 'She's the Lass for Me' ; 'The La4dies Who Fought and Won,' etc. He is author of a Scottish comedy and 'Harry Lauder at Home and on Tour) (1906); Lauder's Logic) (1917); Minstrel in (1918).