WHEN LAUDER TOILED FOR FEW SHILLINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 515, 19 November 1928, Page 13

WHEN LAUDER TOILED FOR FEW SHILLINGS

POVERTY IN BOYHOOD Boyhood days were recalled by Sir Harry Lauder, the comedian, on the occasion of a presentation at Arbroath, Forfarshire, of a model of the half-time school he attended there when working at a mill, where he earned 2s Id a week. "The clothes I wore in those days,” said Sir Harry, “were not made to measure.” He described how he and his mother added to the' household income by teasing ropes. “I used to go to a warehouse for a hundredweight of ropes,” he said, “and carry them on my back. My mother and I would sit from 8 at night until 12 at night, and we got through two hundredweight of rope a week. By that means the exchequer was augmented by 3s. “My mother got 6s a week from the parish, a shilling a week for each of the children not working. I was the only one working. “That was my beginning. How can any man ever put on side or airs when within his own soul Is that experience, one that he can never forget? These things make one very, very humble.”

There was a catch in Sir Harry’s voice as he recalled his father’s death. “X sat at the fire and helped mother to greet (cry),” he said in a low voice. “I have done all my greeting in Arbroath, and greeting is a thing you never forget. I think that if we keep that something that is sad in our souls, then we have a very quick grasp of sympathy for our fellowmen."