Robert Alexander Crookston Laidlaw (8 September 1885 – 12 March 1971) was a New Zealand businessman who founded the

Farmers Trading Company The Farmers Trading Company Ltd (branded as Farmers) is a New Zealand mid-market department store chain. Headquartered in Flat Bush, Auckland, Farmers operates 59 stores across New Zealand, specialising in family fashion, beauty, homewares, fur ...

, one of the largest

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chains in New Zealand. He was also a Christian writer and philanthropist and a well-known lay preacher in the

Open Brethren The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren, are a group of Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They originated in Ireland before spread ...

movement.

Biography

Laidlaw was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. His parents emigrated to

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand, when he was a young boy. He studied at

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

. In

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

he founded Laidlaw Leeds, a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

-type

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

catalogue for rural customers. This later merged with the older Farmers Union Trading Company to become what is now Farmers Trading Company Ltd, the last remaining nationwide chain of department stores in the country. He married Lillian Watson, the sister of American preacher Henry Ironside, in 1915, and the couple settled in New Zealand. They were to have three children, including notable architect Lillian (later Lillian Chrystall) and toy-maker Lincoln Laidlaw. One of Laidlaw's best-known quotes is about the practice of tithing: He wrote the short book, '' The Reason Why'', which has over 50 million copies in print. In 2008, the Bible College of New Zealand renamed itself Laidlaw College in recognition of his role as one of the College's founders, and because of "his significant influence in both society and church".Laidlaw College Prospectus 09, p.4. In 1935, Laidlaw was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. In the 1955 New Year Honours, he was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

, for social welfare and philanthropic services.

Postal Sunday School Movement

Robert Laidlaw founded the PSSM Bible Discovery trust was founded in 1938 with Mr. James Rowan. Mr. Laidlaw and Mr. Rowan originally started their operations separately but within 6 months of launching learned of the other and so merged their two operations. PSSM was founded on the idea of the mail order catalogue, something that Laidlaw had successfully used to gather customers in the rural farming areas of New Zealand for his company

. Laidlaw used the mail order catalogue system to send 'Sunday school' lessons to children in these rural areas, thus creating the "Postal Sunday School Movement." This continued via post until 2011 when it was transferred to an email based system. At its peak, there were 9,000 subscribers in New Zealand and another 3,000 overseas. Countries served include

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, Fiji, and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. In 2010 the PSSM Trust board decided that after declining rolls and lack of engagement, they needed to strategically reinvent their presence, becoming 2ndcity Studios.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laidlaw, Robert 1885 births 1971 deaths People from North Ayrshire Scottish emigrants to New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand businesspeople New Zealand Plymouth Brethren New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire