From ROSLIN
round the world!
-the incredible story of
John Lawson Johnston and
An
exhibition for Penicuik Community Development Trust based on
“the Story of Bovril” 1953 and over a century of Bovril
advertising
John Lawson Johnston (1839-1900) the creator of Bovril was born in 29 Main Street, Roslin,
where you’ll find Bovril Johnston’s café and there’s a Roslin Historical
Society plaque above the door. As a butcher back in the eighteen seventies he
developed Johnston's Fluid Beef which he later called Bovril. From Roslin, he set up a business to
manufacture his products in Quebec, later moving to London where he lived at
'Bovril Castle' -- Kingswood House, Sydenham
while he developed the Bovril brand across Britain. Bovril was closely associated with the
Playfairs, the Edinburgh & Bengal medical family; Lord
Playfair had once been a laboratory assistant to Baron Liebig,
founder of Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company (Oxo).
John Lawson Johnston married Elizabeth, daughter of George Lawson, biscuit manufacturer of
Edinburgh. Their second son George Lawson Johnston
(1873–1943) also managed the Bovril company and was raised to the peerage as Baron Luke. Educated in Canada, Dulwich and Polmont, he
worked in Canada, Australia, Africa and Argentina developing expertise in trade
and raw materials. In 1896 he returned to London and the board of Bovril Ltd,
becoming Vice-Chairman in 1900 when his father died. He was a Director of the Daily
Express from its foundation in 1900 to 1917, and a director of Lloyds
Bank. During World War I he was a member of the leather
control board and Chairman of Committees in the Raw Materials Department at the
War
Office. Apart from his business career he was also a member of the Bedfordshire
County Council and served as a Justice of the Peace and was High
Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1924 and Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire (1936-1943).
He was noted for his work for hospitals, as honorary Treasurer of the Royal
Northern Hospital 1909-1923, chairman of the Hospitals of London Appeal in
1922, Honorary Secretary of King Edward's Hospital fund for London, Chairman of
the British Charities Association, Treasurer of the County of London Red Cross,
and Honorary Secretary of the League of Mercy.
When he was raised to the
peerage as Baron Luke of Pavenham in the County of Bedford he chose the
title because St Luke was the patron of hospitals, and because the
parish of St Luke, Old Street EC1 was where Bovril had its headquarters.
Symbolically, the usual depiction of St Luke of the gospels is the ox:
