Hamilton Mack Laing

David Hamilton Mack Laing (6 Feb 1883 – 15 Feb 1982), known for most of his life as "Mack Laing", was a naturalist, writer, ornithologist, artist, photographer, taxidermist and hunter who greatly increased the knowledge of Western Canadian flora and fauna in the early years of the twentieth century. He was a prolific writer about nature; about 900 of his stories appeared in popular magazines of the time. Many of his mounted bird and animal skins, collected during scientific expeditions, are in the collections of museums and universities around the world.

Early life and education Laing's parents, William Oswald Laing and Rachel Melvina Mack, met in Ontario and wed in 1874, then moved west to the pioneer township of Clearsprings, Manitoba (near Steinbach) to clear bushland and start a farm. When Rachel became pregnant in 1882, they temporarily returned to Hensall, Ontario to be with her parents. That is where Hamilton Mack Laing was born in February 1883. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved back to Clearsprings, and Laing was raised on their farm.

Upon graduating from Pratt in the spring of 1914, Laing used the money he had earned from his published stories to buy himself a 1914 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Assuming he was going to resume his teaching career again, Laing spent the summer of 1914 riding his motorcycle from Brooklyn to Winnipeg, where he applied to be an art teacher. However, a global war had broken out in Europe that had swept up Canada, and no teachers were being hired.

In May 1922, Laing accompanied a one-month field expedition sponsored by the Victoria Memorial Museum to the South Okanagan Valley. There he met Allan Brooks, at the time the foremost bird illustrator in North America, and the two became close friends. At the end of the expedition, Brooks insisted that Laing come with him to his home in Comox, British Columbia, telling Laing that the small fishing village was "a very birdy place" and Laing "wouldn't find a better spot in which to work on his coastal [bird] collection." When Laing arrived, he found himself so enamoured with the area that he bought a forested 5-acre (2-hectare) oceanfront lot divided by a meadering stream called Brooklyn Creek.

Laing ordered a house kit from Aladdin Readi-Cut Houses and started to clear part of his property for the house. During 1923, he refused all collecting work as he completed the house, which he called Baybrook, and built a bridge across Brooklyn Creek.

For a few more years after he married, Laing spent his summers on scientific expeditions in British Columbia, but in 1930, he decided to settle down, and became a guide-naturalist working in Jasper and Banff.

In 1979, when Laing was 96, his biography of Allan Brooks titled Allan Brooks: Artist Naturalist was finally published by the British Columbia Provincial Museum.