Sir Christophor Laidlaw

Laidlaw became a managing director of British Petroleum in 1972, and was deputy chairman in 1980-81. During a 33-year career with the international oil company he was associated chiefly with the “downstream” marketing of refined products and the successful development of distribution businesses across continental Europe. In the 1950s and 1960s both these activities were relatively novel for a company built on “upstream” oil exploration and production in the Middle East.

A fluent German speaker with a command of several other European languages, Laidlaw was self-confident, sophisticated and, by the mild-mannered collegiate standards of BP in that era, frankly outspoken. He demanded high standards from those who worked with him and was not afraid to shake the hierarchy above; one report on his file noted that “he makes insufficient allowance for his seniors and elders being somewhat slower than he is”.

It was recognised, however, that anyone at whom his acerbic tongue was directed generally deserved it — and he became a role-model for a younger generation of BP managers who saw themselves as more commercially switched-on than their predecessors.

He advanced from a posting as representative in Hamburg to be general manager of marketing in 1963, director of BP Trading in 1967, president of BP’s interests in France, Belgium and Italy as well as Germany, and, from 1977, chairman of a major operating subsidiary, BP Oil. But in 1981, a younger (and perhaps more emollient) managing director, Sir Peter Walters, was preferred for the group chairmanship.

Laidlaw had by then been approached to take the chair of the troubled computer maker ICL, and he accepted the challenge with alacrity. Formed by a merger of several British computer ventures in 1968 with the objective of creating a “national champion” to compete against IBM, ICL had survived under the umbrella of Labour’s interventionist National Enterprise Board as a major supplier to the UK public sector. But against rising Japanese and American competition, its export performance was weak, and by 1981 — with little sympathy from the Thatcher administration — it was close to receivership.

A rescue takeover by an American manufacturer was seen as the likeliest way forward. But Laidlaw, working with a young executive team hired in from the United States and deploying his extensive City and Whitehall contacts, helped to achieve a recapitalisation of the company, supported by loan guarantees from government, and a technology agreement with Fujitsu of Japan which gave ICL a new lease of life.

Early in 1984 he was succeeded by Sir Michael Edwardes, the former chairman of the British Leyland car company, but when ICL fell to a takeover bid from Standard Telephones & Cables (STC) six months later, Edwardes promptly resigned and Laidlaw returned briefly before retiring again to concentrate on a busy portfolio of board appointments elsewhere. ICL was eventually sold to Fujitsu.

The son of a manager of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company — the forerunner of BP — Christophor Charles Fraser Laidlaw was born in Calcutta on August 9 1922. After his father’s early death, Christophor was brought up in Cambridge by his mother and two older sisters, one of whom became the mother of the actor Hugh Laurie.

Christophor was educated at Rugby, and went up to St John’s College, Cambridge, to read Modern Languages until his studies were interrupted by war service. His gift for languages was put to good use for five years in the Intelligence Corps, in which he rose to become a major on the General Staff. He took part in the north-west Europe campaign, including the battle of Arnhem, and served both in Germany and the Far East at the end of the war.

Having completed his degree after demobilisation, Laidlaw worked for a textile company in Manchester for two years before following in his father’s footsteps by joining what was by then the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co – which became British Petroleum following the forced nationalisation of its Iranian operations by the Mossadeq regime in the early 1950s.

After his time at BP and ICL, Laidlaw’s analytical skill and appetite for asking difficult questions made him much sought after as a non-executive director. He sat on the boards of Barclays Bank; Commercial Union Assurance; Equity Capital for Industry; the brickmaker Redland; the food group Dalgety; and the British arm of Mercedes-Benz. He was chairman of Bridon, which made wire rope, and Boving, which made valves for the water and power industries. He was also a director of the American oil company Amerada Hess, where his son Sam (now chief executive of Centrica) was managing director.

Though he never lost his sharp edge, it was balanced by a warm sense of humour and a kindly eye for the careers of talented younger managers who crossed his path. He was chairman of the UK advisory board of Insead, the European business school, and was also widely involved in Anglo-German relations as president of the German chamber of industry and commerce in London and a long-time participant in the Konigswinter conferences. He was knighted in 1982.

Christophor Laidlaw loved trout fishing and opera, and was well read. His home was in Chelsea Square, where as chairman of the residents’ committee in 2004 he found himself having to deal with complaints against Brulee, a red chow belonging to the Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, which was accused of terrorising fellow users of the square’s communal garden. Laidlaw told a reporter that he had had “a tiresome interview with Ecclestone’s wife Slavica about the beastly thing” — but that it had been duly brought to order.

Christophor Laidlaw married, in 1952, Nina Pritchard, who had worked in BP’s personnel department and continued to play a role in company life at his side; a devoted couple, they were also a highly effective team. She survives him with their son and three daughters.