Career
Laird"s family were from Greenock near Glasgow, and in 1810 he moved from there to Liverpool to develop the family"s rope manufacturing business. By 1822 he had developed wider engineering interests, and had set up a steamship company to run between Liverpool and Glasgow. Initially he intended to build a canal across the Wirral peninsula, but that plan soon foundered.
This was initially a boilerworks, but in 1828 it received its first order for an iron ship, to be used on the lakes of Ireland.
The business rapidly expanded, as the demand for large iron steamships developed. In 1839 his company built an armed flotilla for the East India Company.
As landowner, Laird commissioned Edinburgh architect James Gillespie Graham to design an elegant new town close to the shipyard. This became the centre of Birkenhead, focused on Hamilton Square and, after Laird"s death in 1841, Birkenhead Park.
Laird"s shipbuilding business moved in 1856 to a new site on the river bank at Tranmere, and in 1903 amalgamated with Charles Cammell & Company to become Cammell Laird.
Laird"s elder son John became Member of Parliament for Birkenhead in 1861.
