Sir John Latta and Sir Andrew Latta

By Joanne Ferguson

John Latta was born in Cumnock on May 9, 1867, the son of William and Margaret Allan Latta. William was a farmer at Darmalloch Farm. John was the fourth of nine children.

John received his early education in Cumnock and then moved on to the Ayr Academy. After completing his studies, John was hired by the Greenock firm of Craig and Scott. This company owned and managed a fleet of sailing ships. John then moved to London and became the chartering clerk with Trinder, Anderson and Company. Following that position, John took a clerk position with Little and Johnston. In 1892, John joined with Robert Lawther, the son of the famous Belfast ship owner, Samuel Lawther, to start a business called Lawther, Latta and Company. This business initially concentrated on deep sea chartering of sailing ships. John and Robert went on to build one of the most successful tramp fishing fleets.

In 1896, John married Ada May Short, the daughter of John Young Short and Mary Ada Smart of Ashbrooke Hall in Sunderland. The Short family was a family of shipbuilders building large cargo carriers.

Northern Echo Newspaper 18 Mar 1896 page 4, Newspapers.com

Ada May Short Latta

Picture from the National Portrait Gallery

John and Ada had four children: a girl who died in infancy in 1896; Sybil May, who was born in 1897; Ada Mary, who was born in 1899; and Cecil, who was born in 1903.

In 1904, John Latta was one of the British ship owners presented to King Edward VII in recognition of services to the United Kingdom.

John was knighted on February 9, 1920, for services to the country during the Boer War and World War I.

Sybil May married Philip Alexander Francis Spence, a major in the British Army Black Watch, in April of 1923. Philip was the son of John and Joanna Spence.

Sybil and Philip had one daughter, Frances R. Spencer.

Philip Alexander Francis Spence died December 30, 1960, in London.

Sybil Latta Spence died May 22, 1968, in London.

John Latta’s second daughter, Ada Mary, married Maurice Paul Richard Fontaine de Cramayel.

The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, 22 July 1924 Page 13

Newspapers.com

Ada Mary, Countess de Cramayel

The Count and Countess had one son, Guy Francois Philippe Fontaine De Cramayel, born in 1925 in Paris, France.

On September 3, 1943, at “L’Elysee,” Ouchy-Lausanne, Switzerland, Maurice, Marquis de Cramayel, husband of Mary (daughter of John and Lady Latta), died at age 46.

In August of 1947, Ada Mary married Count Emmanuel Henri

Urbain Chevreau D’Antraigues. They did not have any children.

Newspapers.com

Ada Mary died in 1988 at the age of 89.

The Daily Telegraph, Monday October 10, 1988

Newspapers.com

John’s fourth child, Cecil, worked for his father in the shipping business, traveling all over the world. Cecil never married and sadly died in Paris in 1937 at the age of 34. Because Cecil was John’s only son and had predeceaced John, the baronetcy became extinct upon John’s death.