Dora Laing

As the head of the drawing section of the Monotype Type Drawing Office, Dora Laing left a lasting mark on the department, and on her colleagues.

Born Dorothy Elizabeth Laing in London in 1906, she was the youngest of three daughters. She, like Dora Pritchett, lived with her widowed mother following the death of her father when she was only 11 years old. Laing joined Monotype in 1922, aged 16. By 1929 she lived with her mother in Reigate, near Salfords and she was recorded in the 1939 Register as a ‘Draughtwoman (Type Design)’. Dora remained single and childless throughout her career at Monotype, retiring around 1966, at the age of 60.

According to colleagues who worked with her in the 1950s and 1960s, Dora could be a ‘martinet’ with younger recruits. But she was also fair to her colleagues and, according to David Saunders (who worked with her and later supervised the TDO), Laing ‘handed on a knowledge and respect for the drawing work that became a lasting model’. By the end of her career she sat in a separate office from the main TDO as part of a small team of senior staff who held key company knowledge, thus highlighting the breadth of her skills and her value to Monotype.

View of the Monotype TDO, c. 1928. Dora Laing sits in the front row in the middle, wearing a black cardigan. She would have been in her early twenties. Courtesy St Bride Library

Monotype employee Dora Laing drawing an Arabic character, in reverse, at a size of 10-inch. The photograph was most likely taken in the late 1950s. Courtesy Richard Cooper.

Dora Laing's handwritten notes in a notebook entitled 'A brief summary of how a fount is produced for Monotype use', 1956. © Monotype archives

Dora Laing's handwritten notes in a notebook entitled 'A brief summary of how a fount is produced for Monotype use', 1956. © Monotype archives