The young curling skip (captain of the team) in this painting is nine-year old John Darg Laing. He is standing on an artificial curling pond built by his father, a President of the Lasswade Curling Club, at their home Hollycot in the village of Lasswade, Midlothian. John holds a traditional 'cowe', the earliest form of curling sweeping implement, made by binding together branches of the shrub, common broom. In his role as skip, he is signalling to his teammate at the other end of the rink to play a guard shot.

After attending the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, John joined the Royal Flying Corps, graduating in July 1917. He was killed three months later, aged nineteen, when his plane was shot down in France by the German flying ace Walter Von Bülow-Bothkamp. John's name is listed on the war memorial at Lasswade.