I have a laurel that was just like Richard's until this summer, small and stunted, many brown leaves, it hardly grew at all. The soil is poor, rocks and clay, and it is exposed to wind from the north, east and west, no salt, spray, though. I must have had it for 10 years, suddenly this summer it started to grow, without any intervention from me, and looks very healthy, so maybe his tree will wake up one day as well, like mine. There are many big laurels around here.
The second of the photos do show quite a few scale insects (Coccus hesperidum), though, as far as I can see, they are hard to get rid of.