Laidler was born in Newcastle (4.7.08) at 6 Osborne Road, Jesmond. He was educated at Newcastle Preparatory school and later at Trinity College, Glenalmond. His father died when Laidler was 13 and the family moved south, eventually settling in Jordans, Buckinghamshire. Laidler always intended becoming a cartoonist from his schooldays onwards, but as a result of family pressure he enrolled at the London School of Architecture in 1926. He became seriously ill (a tubercular kidney) just after starting his first job in a surveyor's office. He therefore concentrated on drawing cartoons, and in August 1932 had his first acceptance from Punch who gave him an exclusive contract (this was almost unprecedented).
Under the name 'Pont', Laidler became a major comic artist and one of the most original talents in the history of Punch. His drawings poked fun at the middle classes and were distinguished by acute observation and a complete lack of sentimentality. He is perhaps most famous for his series on the 'British Character' . This was published as a book in 1938. Another book The British Carry On (1940) portrayed the atmosphere of the phoney war and the national response to the threat of invasion. A famous example shows a placid scene in a country pub, where the radio is tuned to the German propaganda station: 'Meanwhile in Britain, the entire population, faced by the threat of an invasion, has been flung into a state of complete panic.' These cartoons have often been used to illustrate the social history of that period, and some were republished in the early '80s.
Laidler was tall, good-looking and regarded by all with affection. He completed four hundred cartoons in his brief career, enough to furnish the material for five books, two published posthumously. Bernard Hollowood, a fellow cartoonist and later editor of Punch wrote a book entitled Pont which was published in 1969.