[2] His mother was the daughter of a United Presbyterian church minister at Elgin, Simon Somerville.

Laurie held this role for 50 years, in which time he greatly improved the education of teachers in Scotland.

It took until 1873 for the Scottish board of education to give the training colleges the right to send their best students, at least, to universities to gain full degrees.

The trust distributed money to the best school teachers in northeast Scotland (Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray counties) according to Laurie's published reports.

[3] Also in 1876, he became honorary secretary of the Association for Promoting Secondary Education in Scotland, a voluntary campaigning organisation.

Josipa Petrunic describes his philosophical writings as "often nebulous and obscure", in contrast to his more practical work on education.

He wrote up the lectures in Synthetica (1905–06), which "gave Laurie high rank among speculative writers".

[3] On his retirement, Laurie's admirers presented him with the portrait oil painting by George Fiddes Watt (see illustration).

[7] His sister, Mary Struthers Laurie, married Sir David Orme Masson.

[3] The grave lies in the western extension against the southern wall, close to the south-west corner.