John Lawson Johnston
{{short description|British businessman}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2014}}
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File:John Lawson Johnston Vanity Fair 18 February 1897.jpg) in Vanity Fair, February 1897}}]]
John Lawson Johnston (1839 – 24 November 1900) was a Scottish entrepreneur and the creator of Bovril. He was born in 29 Main Street, Roslin, Midlothian. 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 he came into contact with Lyon Playfair, a professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. 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) – 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.{{cn|date=August 2021}}
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).Statutes of the Province of Quebec, "An Act to incorporate "The Canadian Meat and Produce Company."" [Assented to 23 February 1875.] 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.Guy's Hospital Gazette, Volume 14 (1900) London
He sold his Canadian business in 1880, after his factory burned down,{{cn|date=August 2021}} and went to England where he lived at 'Bovril Castle' – Kingswood House, West Dulwich – while he developed the Bovril brand across Britain, based on the commercial promotion of dietetics.
In 1889 the Bovril business in Britain was floated on the stock market and became a public company.{{cite news|title=Prospectus|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13637410/floatation_of_bovril_1889/|accessdate=8 September 2017|work=The Guardian|date=5 March 1889}} In 1896 the company received an offer of £2 million from Ernest Terah Hooley and the shareholders agreed to the sale.{{cite news|title=Bovril Limited|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/32578184|accessdate=8 September 2017|work=The Times|date=23 November 1896}} 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.{{cite news|title=The Hooley Case – Another Batch of Disclaimers|publisher=Dundee Courier|date=3 August 1898}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52729768 |title=BOVRIL. |newspaper=The Morning Bulletin |location=Rockhampton, Qld. |date=16 January 1901 |accessdate=29 December 2013 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
He was a keen yachtsman and died aboard his yacht White Ladye in Cannes, France, on 24 November 1900.The Annual register of world events: a review of the year, Volume 142 (1901) Longman's, Green & Co., London{{cite news|title=Inventor of "Bovril" Dead|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/11/25/105755189.pdf|accessdate=18 January 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 November 1900}} His body was brought back to England and interred in a large mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery.
His second son George Lawson Johnston also managed the Bovril company and was raised to the peerage as Baron Luke.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
References
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Category:People from Midlothian
Category:Burials at West Norwood Cemetery