John Lawson Johnston Vanity Fair 18 February 1897

John Lawson Johnston (1839– 24 November 1900) was a Scottish entrepreneur and the creator of

Bovril Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick and salty meat extract paste similar to a yeast extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston. It is sold in a distinctive bulbous jar, and as cubes and granules. Bovril is owned and distribut ...

. He was born in 29 Main Street,

Roslin, Midlothian Roslin (formerly spelt Rosslyn or Roslyn; Scottish Gaelic: Riasg Linne) is a village in Midlothian, Scotland, 11 kilometres (7 mi) to the south of the capital city Edinburgh. It stands on high ground, near the northwest bank of the river ...

. A memorial plaque is on the property and can be seen above the door. The plaque was put there by the Roslin Heritage Society.

Life and "Bovril"

Johnston studied in Edinburgh at some point and came into contact with

Lyon Playfair Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair (1 May 1818 – 29 May 1898) was a British scientist and Liberal politician who was Postmaster-General from 1873 to 1874. Early life Playfair was born at Chunar, Bengal, the son of George Playfair (1782-1846) ...

, a professor of chemistry at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. Through him, John developed an interest in food science and preserving. Regardless of what his intentions had originally been as a choice of profession, Johnston's uncle John was a butcher and his nephew decided to pursue this as a trade and apprenticed with him.The City of Edinburgh Council Archives Eventually, he took over his butcher shop in Edinburgh and became well established. While working as a butcher in Edinburgh, he decided to use the large quantity of beef trimmings produced in the butchery process to make his own ''

glace de viande Meat glaze, French: ''glace de viande'', is a dark brown, gelatinous flavouring agent used in food preparation. It is obtained by reducing brown stock through evaporation by slow heating. Its high viscosity and salt content gives it an unusually lo ...

'' (meat glaze) – beef stock, concentrated by heating until it becomes dark brown and viscous, thus giving it a long shelf-life. This sold so well that he opened a second shop and a factory in the Holyrood area. In 1871, he emigrated to Canada and set up business in that country. In 1874, the French Army gave him a contract to supply the army with preserved beef products, Britain not having enough beef to supply the French demand in the Franco-Prussian War. While there, he developed ''Johnston's Fluid Beef (brand Bovril)''. This was somewhat different from conventional meat glaze in that the gelatin, present in all meat glaze and making it solid at room temperature, was hydrolysed with alkali to make the mixture semi-liquid, and thereby easier to package, measure and use. For his services, he was awarded the Order of the French Red Cross. He sold his Canadian business in 1880, after his factory burned down, and went to England where he lived at 'Bovril Castle' – Kingswood House,

West Dulwich West Dulwich ( ) is a neighbourhood in South London on the southern boundary of Brockwell Park, which straddles the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark. Croxted Road and South Croxted Road mark the boundary between Sou ...

– while he developed the Bovril brand across Britain, based on the commercial promotion of

dietetics A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ca ...

. In 1889 the Bovril business in Britain was floated on the stock market and became a public company. In 1896 the company received an offer of £2 million from

Ernest Terah Hooley Ernest Terah Hooley (5 February 1859 – 11 February 1947) was an English financial fraudster. He achieved wealth and fame by buying promising companies and reselling them to the public at inflated prices, but a prosecution exposed his deceitful ...

and the shareholders agreed to the sale. Lawson Johnston, who was the largest shareholder in the old company, acquired a significant number of shares in a newly formed company and remained on the board until his death in 1900. He was a keen yachtsman and died aboard his yacht ''

White Ladye ''White Ladye'' was a steam yacht built in 1891 by Ramage & Ferguson of Leith from a design by W C Storey. She had 3 masts; length 204 ft; breadth 27 ft; 142 hp steam powered. She was built for Francis Edward Baring (Lord Ashbur ...

'' in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

, France, on 24 November 1900. His body was brought back to England and interred in a large mausoleum in

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of L ...

. His second son George Lawson Johnston also managed the Bovril company and was raised to the peerage as

Baron Luke Baron Luke, of Pavenham in the County of Bedford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the businessman George Lawson Johnston. He was the second son of John Lawson Johnston, the founder of Bovril Ltd. the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, John Lawson 1839 births 1900 deaths People from Midlothian Burials at West Norwood Cemetery 19th-century Scottish businesspeople