Sam Laughlin was born and brought up in the city of Glasgow in the districts of Kinning Park and Plantation. When WW2 began, he was evacuated to his grandfather’s farm in Co. Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Soon he was called up to the army and spent the next four formative years in the Far East. Returning home, he resumed his apprenticeship in a Glasgow Shipyard where he remained for 25 years. After the decline of the shipyards in Glasgow, Sam worked in a large city advertising agency. When he retired from secular work, the Lord had a new work for Sam to do: visiting the ships that dock in Glasgow.