Lauritz was a son of Holger Magarus la Cour (no. 51) and Edele Charlotte la Cour, born on 27 June 1834 at Meilgård manor. He was enrolled at the Aarhus lower secondary school in 1844, and, after six years of school, he was hired by a brokerage office in Aarhus. In 1854 he travelled to Scotland, where, two years later, he set himself up as a broker and merchant in Leith together with a man named B. Tvermoes. When his business partner moved back to Copenhagen the following year, Lauritz took on a new partner by the name of Watson, a man who later became his brother-in-law. In 1863 he was appointed Danish vice-consul in Granton.
Lauritz married Alice Maria la Cour (née Elam) on 19 October 1864 in London. Born on 3 February 1843 in London to John Elam, a merchant and cloth manufacturer, and Mary Stanborough, Alice attended a boarding school in Brussels from 1853 to 1859. Lauritz purchased the right to use six major coal mines: Town Hill in 1867; Dykehead and West Limerigg in 1869; and Lochgelly, Edellewood and Labuan in 1872. In 1872, he also bought Løvenholm, a manor near Randers, where he, his wife and children spent their summers from 1873 until 1884. In 1881, Lauritz is recorded as residing at the address of 17 Inverleith Row in St. George, Midlothian, Scotland, together with his wife, their nine children and six servants. He was made a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog* in 1885, and he sold Løvenholm in 1886. Lauritz died on 3 May 1889 in Edinburgh, Scotland. After her husband’s death, Alice visited Denmark in 1899, 1903, 1907,1909, 1910 and 1913. She died on 13 December 1933 in Edinburgh, having reached the ripe old age of 91 and still of sound mind, even if weak of body. She had lived in the same house in Edinburgh for 69 years, the one she and Lauritz had moved into as newlyweds. (Twelve children: the Scottish Line.)
