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I Love a Lassie” words by Harry Lauder & Gerald Grafton music by Harry Lauder. Sir Harry Lauder (4 August 1870 - 26 February 1950) was a notable Scottish entertainer, described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador!"

There can be no doubt whatever of Harry Lauder’s tremendous popularity as an entertainer, music-hall and vaudeville artist. He toured the world for forty years including 22 times to the U.S.A., and several times to Australia where he often stayed with his brother John, who had emigrated there. Harry and his wife and son were in Melbourne, Victoria, when the British Empire mobilized for World War I. Harry was the first British entertainer to sell a million records and was a favorite of King Edward VII and an intimate friend of the famous tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton, amongst others.

A robust patriot, Harry raised huge sums of money for war charities during the Great War (1914-1918) - The Harry Lauder Million Pound Fund - and entertained troops in the trenches in France, where he came under enemy fire. He also organized a tour of music halls in 1915 for recruitment purposes. These would not necessarily be very subtle "Ten pounds for the first man here who joins the army" was the style. The rightness of the war went without question for Harry Lauder. He was subsequently knighted in January 1919 by King George V. Although his "final retirement" was announced in 1935, he again entertained troops, and broadcast over the wireless with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra during World War II, despite his advancing years. Even towards the end of that conflict and just afterwards Sir Harry appeared at the docks when American food ships came into Glasgow to publicly thank the crews for coming to Britain’s assistance in her hour of need.

His last years were spent in his home of Lauder Ha' at Strathaven, where he died in February 1950, aged 79.