Mystery surrounds death of Captain John C Lauder
Feb 5 1915 #OTD Chicago Tribune publishes this photo of, John C Lauder, leading an Argyle and Sutherland unit on a bayonet charge at Bedford, UK. He was the son of controversial comedian and singer Harry Lauder who holds the title of Scotland’s best-loved entertainer but also its most despised.
Witnesses claim that Captain John C Lauder died on Dec 28 1916 after being hit by a sniper while getting a dud shell in no man's land. There were no attacks on his unit that day and he was the only recorded death. Historian Ed Dixon, who writes about the mystery surrounding his death, says that there were orders to retrieve duds so the timing fuse could be studied and from this the shell's firing position.
Author Lorn Macintyre used John C Lauder as a character in his book, Empty footsteps. In the book, he writes that Lauder was hated by those under his command and that he was fragged or shot by his own men. Macintyre was from Argyll and has claimed it is ‘common knowledge that John Lauder was shot by one of his own men.
Sep 5 1918 At Ranchicourt, France, Thomas Keith Aitken photo, IWM Q 11281, of Scottish music hall comedian and singer Harry Lauder talking with Staff Officers at First Army Headquarters