2 IO 
A. G. Tansley. 
CHARLES GLASS PLAYFAIR LAIDLAW. 
C. G. P. Laidlaw is the first British botanist, so far as the 
present writer is aware, to fall in the war. 
Laidlaw was born in 1887 in London, but was of pure Scottish 
descent. He was the son of Dr. Robert Laidlaw who was born 
in Ayrshire and took his doctor’s degree at Edinburgh. Later 
he engaged in medical missionary work and was afterwards 
Government Medical Officer for the Seychelles. Dr. Laidlaw 
married Elizabeth Playfair, daughter of Patrick Playfair of Glasgow 
and Ardmillan. In 1897 Dr. and Mrs. Laidlaw moved to 
Cambridge for the sake of their sons’ education and Charles 
went to the Perse School. He was distinctly good both at his 
work and at games. While still at school he was asked to play 
for the University water-polo team when they were a man short; 
and before he left he was head boy on the Science side. Later he 
played lacrosse for his College and sometimes for the University, 
though he did not get his half-blue. He was also a sound lawn 
tennis player. 
In 1906 Laidlaw was elected to an Entrance Scholarship for 
Natural Science at St. John’s College and began “ residence” in 
October, 1907, afterwards obtaining a Foundation Scholarship. 
His Scholarships paid all his University expenses. In 1909 he was 
placed in the First Class of the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part 1, 
and in 1911 obtained a First Class (in Botany) in Part II of the 
same Tripos. He was then elected to a Hutchinson Studentship at 
St. John’s College, and undertook research in Plant Physiology 
at the Botany School under the direction of Mr. F. F. Blackman. 
He worked at an electrical method of determining carbon dioxide 
in relation to photosynthesis, and in 1912 was elected to a Frank 
Smart Studentship at Caius College with a view to his continuing 
this work, which was progressing most promisingly. At the same 
time however, he was offered a Research Scholarship by the Board 
of Agriculture, and as this seemed at the time to lead to a more 
assured future career, he decided after some hesitation to take up 
the Government Scholarship, and to abandon the Cambridge one. 
This decision unfortunately necessitated the abandonment of his 
work at Cambridge and his migration to London by direction of the 
Board of Agriculture. From the autumn of 1912 till the outbreak 
of war in August, 1914, Laidlaw worked under the direction of 
Professor V. H. Blackman of the Imperial College of Science and 
Technology. Here he was engaged on an investigation of the 
