In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 8 September 1885
- Died
- 12 March 1971
- Birthplace
- Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland
- Country
- New Zealand
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Laidlaw Leeds and management of the Farmers trading business
- Laidlaw Leeds
- Established 1909
- Auckland premises
- Opened April 1914
- Farmers combination
- 1918
- General-manager retirement
- 1945
Why this life matters
His career connects catalogue distribution, rural purchasing and religious philanthropy, with wartime controversy complicating a purely celebratory account.
Timeline
Key moments
Born
Born 8 September in Dalry.
Mail-order business
Established Laidlaw Leeds.
Larger premises
Opened at Hobson and Wyndham Streets in April.
Controversy and combination
Military-service adjournment attracted criticism; Laidlaw Leeds merged with Farmers Union Trading Company.
Management retirement
Retired as general manager.
Death
Died 12 March in Auckland.
Commercial training and religious conviction
Robert Alexander Crookston Laidlaw was born in Dalry, Scotland, on 8 September 1885. His family moved to Dunedin the following year. After education at Otago Boys’ High School, he became a clerk in his father’s business at sixteen. He later worked as a wholesale traveller in Otago and Southland before moving to Auckland. The DNZB also records his Open Brethren upbringing and evangelical conversion at R. A. Torrey’s 1902 mission. These commercial and religious beginnings continued to shape different parts of his career: retailing supplied the organisational setting, while evangelical commitments directed much of his writing and giving.
Sources for this section: [1]
Mail order connected a warehouse with distant customers
Laidlaw established Laidlaw Leeds in 1909. Mail-order selling allowed customers to examine a printed range and order from a warehouse without visiting an urban shop. It still depended on correspondence, payment, packing and transport. The National Library’s authority record confirms the business’s origin and describes surviving advertising and catalogues. Those materials show how the company presented itself, but an advertised range does not establish that every item was available for every order. Laidlaw’s business idea therefore involved a distribution system as well as an appealing catalogue, and its performance needs evidence beyond the printed pages.
Growth encountered the conditions of wartime trade
Substantial premises opened at the corner of Hobson and Wyndham Streets in April 1914. Two years later the company produced a catalogue which the National Library describes as 500 pages. Its curator’s account explains how wartime freight, insurance and scarce materials affected prices and supplies. A 1916 newspaper advertisement directed readers to the catalogue’s freight information. These records make the practical constraints on remote retail visible. They do not show a frictionless route from listing to delivery. The inspected material concerns the catalogue and its published context; the entire 500-page volume and the business’s complete order records were not read.
The 1918 record includes criticism as well as expansion
When called up for military service in 1918, Laidlaw sought exemption on the grounds that the business depended on him. The Military Service Board granted an indefinite adjournment, effectively excusing him. The DNZB records criticism that this favoured the wealthy and notes its use in Labour by-election campaigning. The same year, Laidlaw Leeds combined with the Farmers’ Union Trading Company. A June newspaper paragraph still described purchase negotiations as incomplete, while later biographical and library records establish the eventual combination. An approval to negotiate should therefore retain its prospective status rather than being mistaken for the completed transaction.
Management and giving continued through separate institutions
Laidlaw became general manager of the combined business and remained in that position until 1945. Alongside retail management, he supported evangelical organisations, chaired the New Zealand Bible Training Institute for twenty years and worked with scripture-reading organisations during the Second World War. His tract The Reason Why was published in 1913. Its existence and role are documented by the biographical account, but its full text was not read for this profile. The DNZB also records giving through the Bethesda Charitable Trust. Business management, religious persuasion and charitable grants were related in his life, but they were different activities with different recipients and measures of success.
Sources for this section: [1]
A significant retail career with more than one public memory
Laidlaw received an MBE for wartime services in 1946 and a CBE for community services in 1955. He died in Auckland on 12 March 1971. His legacy includes a mail-order enterprise, a long period managing Farmers and sustained religious work. It also includes a documented wartime controversy that should remain part of the account. Catalogue descriptions, contemporary reports and retrospective biography each illuminate a different aspect of that record. Reading them together gives a fuller picture of a retailer whose personal convictions and commercial responsibilities could attract both admiration and criticism.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Robert Laidlaw
- Did Laidlaw found the entire Farmers business alone?
- He established Laidlaw Leeds in 1909; it combined with the Farmers’ Union Trading Company in 1918, and he became general manager.
- Was the whole 1916 catalogue read?
- No. The institutional catalogue description, curator’s discussion and a specific contemporary advertisement were inspected.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Stephen Tindall
Compare a later New Zealand retailer and a separately organised philanthropic career.
- Bendix Hallenstein
Compare a different retail/manufacturing network and its employee relationships.
- Peter Leitch
Compare two retailers’ routes from local ventures to wider trading networks.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Graham C. Stoop, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography / Te AraLaidlaw, Robert Alexander Crookston
Biography read; listed books and the full evangelical tract were not. Religious and philanthropic claims remain historical descriptions, not evaluations of doctrine or outcomes.
- 2. National Library of New ZealandLaidlaw Leeds (Firm): authority and related catalogue description
The 500-page extent and contents are catalogue metadata. No claim that the whole catalogue or every listed price was inspected.
- 3. National Library of New ZealandWorld War One at home: In ephemera
- 4. Laidlaw Leeds advertiser / Papers Past, National LibraryKaipara and Waitemata Echo,5 October 1916, page 3: Laidlaw catalogue advertisement
- 5. Otago Witness / Papers Past, National LibraryOtago Witness,5 June 1918: purchase negotiations report
Contemporary paragraph explicitly says negotiations were not completed; later sources establish the combination in 1918.
