John McLaren

John McLaren is the name of:

John McLaren (horticulturist)

Dr John Hays McLaren (1846–1943) served as superintendent of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA for 53 years.

Born at Bannockburn, near Stirling in Scotland, and worked as a dairyman before studying horticulture at the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens where he worked as an apprentice gardener's helper. He planted grasses anchoring the beach dunes along the Firth of Forth then emigrated to the United States in 1870 and worked on the George Howard estate in the San Mateo foothills, then on the Leland Stanford estate in Palo Alto and planted trees on the Coyote Point on the shore of the Bay.

He was friends with John Muir, and dedicated his life to vigorous advocacy and development of the 1,017-acre (4.12 km²) Golden Gate Park, one of the largest public parks in the world, using considerable political skill in addition to his remarkable gardening skill. Appointed Park Superintendent in 1887, he requested thirty thousand dollars a year for park building. One of John McLaren's stipulations before taking the superintendent job was, "There will be no 'Keep off the Grass' signs." His horticultural philosophy was to achieve a natural look, typified in his dislike for statuary, calling them "stookies" and planting trees and shrubs to hide them. He built two windmills to pump water to his park and had the sweepings from San Francisco streets delivered as fertilizer. When ocean waves and wind piled sand on the west end of the park, he began a forty year effort to pile branches, clippings and laths on the shore to capture sand and build the great berm that now holds the Great Highway.

John McLaren (cricketer)

John William McLaren (22 December 1886, Toowong, Queensland – 17 November 1921, Highgate Hill, Queensland) was an Australian cricketer who played in 1 Test in 1912.

Son of Elizabeth McINTYRE and William McLAREN

A diabetic, McLaren died in 1921 aged 34 as a result of his condition and was buried in Brisbane's Toowong Cemetery.

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