Together they had a daughter, Veronica (1939). He was a pupil at Dumfries Academy, then a grammar school, and abandoned a career in architecture to serve in the First World War. Mary Margaret Elizabeth aged 31 years Born 1832, died 1925 Daughter of John Laurie and his first wife, Mary (née Sparkes), who died shortly after the birth. Laurie was left particularly haunted by his experiences. John Paton Laurie was the son of William Laurie (1856 – 1903), a clerk in a tweed mill and later a hatter and hosier, and Jessie Ann Laurie (née Brown; 1858 – 1935), and was born in Dumfries, Scotland. Following the 1926 death of his first wife, Florence Saunders, he married Oonah Todd-Naylor. His second wife was Oonah Veronica Todd-Naylor. Laurie was married twice; his first wife, Florence May Saunders, whom he had met at the Old Vic, died in 1926. He and Todd-Naylor became parents to one daughter. Laurie was the son of William Laurie (1856–1903), a clerk in a tweed mill and later a hatter and hosier, and Jessie Ann Laurie (née Brown; 1858–1935). Daughter Veronica, with Oonah, born 1939. He played Ebenezer Balfour in both Kidnapped (1956) and Kidnapped (1960).

Laurie was left particularly haunted by his experiences; later in his life, he once asked Jimmy P… He died aged 83 from emphysema in the Chalfont and Gerrards Cross Hospital, Chalfont St Peter.

He was a pupil at Dumfries Academy - then a grammar school - but abandoned a career in architecture to serve in the First World War.