Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie

by George Brenton Laurie

Percy.

  “AFTERWARDS.”

  A few other Letters, Extracts, etc., received in 1915.

  (The words of a brother officer—Major Cooke Collis, Brigade Major, 31st Brigade.)

  1915.

  …I hope Colonel Laurie did not suffer. It must help you to bear your sorrow to know that he died as he would have wished, fighting bravely for his country. I feel his death keenly; we were so much together in the old days, and now, how the regiment is changed, and how dreadfully they have suffered! But the name they have won for History will not easily be forgotten….

  (Extract from a letter written by Rifleman Patrick White, “D” Coy.,)

  1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

  …Yes, it was our Battalion that Colonel G.B. Laurie commanded. I was about two yards from him when he was killed. Before I tell you how he came to be killed, I must tell you how sorry we all were. He was the best Colonel we ever had, he was always merry and bright, and had a smile for both his men and officers; he was a hero, as General French told us.

  On the morning of March 9th he (Colonel Laurie) told us that we had to make a charge at a place called Neuve Chapelle. We were marched to the firing line that night, and our Colonel had a very nice meal ready for us before we went into the trenches.

  About 7.30 the next morning there began the biggest bombardment I have ever heard—our big guns roared out. I thought hell had been let loose. I tried to look before me, but could see nothing but flame and smoke, and the roars of the big guns were terrible. In about an hour’s time our Colonel gave us the word to fix bayonets and charge for the German trenches. He led us with a smile, and gained victory for our Battalion that day. During the whole time he took it nice and cool, and kept us all in good spirits. The following morning our Battalion was to make another advance, and it was in this advance we lost our brave and noble hero. When a platoon went over the parapet, some of our boys fell never to rise again, and our Colonel, seeing this, was looking over the parapet. There was an enfilading fire from the right, and we told the Colonel to keep his head down; but he was not thinking of himself, but of his men lying out there. Just then he was hit—shot through the head. We bandaged him up, but it was no good. Our brave Colonel had departed from us, and we can only hope that he has got his reward for his heroism in the next world….

  (From 4872 Corporal J. Lennon, “A” Coy., 3rd Royal Irish Rifles, Victoria Barracks, Belfast.)

  1915.

  Dear Madam,

  I now take the opportunity of writing to you as regards the death of your late husband, Colonel G.B. Laurie, who was O.C. of the 1st Bn. Royal Irish Rifles. He was my Commanding Officer for nearly two years. I followed him on the morning of March 10th, 1915, when the Battle of Neuve Chapelle was taking place. He was the first man who charged into Neuve Chapelle. I was present with him all through the battle, and I was with him when he met his death on March 12th just at 20 mins. to 5 o’clock, when he was about to lead the charge of his battalion. His death was instantaneous, and he was buried on March 13th: it was I who carried him in after he was wounded, and when I found that he was quite dead I said some prayers over his body. Major Wright was also wounded in the same battle. I was very sorry indeed about the death of my Commanding Officer. He was a soldier and a gentleman, fearless in all his actions and honest, just and upright. I will certainly never forget him for his kindness to me and all the men who fought under him.

  I was mentioned in Sir J. French’s Despatch along with my Commanding Officer, Colonel Laurie, for bravery at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. You will find my name in the list. I regret his death very much; it was a great blow to me. Well, Madam, the only thing I have to say before concluding is that his relatives and friends may well be proud of him, because he was one of the bravest men that ever led men. I would very much like to have a photo of our Colonel, and I remain,

  Your obedient servant,

  J. Lennon.

  (From Earl Manvers.)

  Thoresby Park,

  Ollerton, Notts.

  March 19th, 1915.

  Dear Mrs. Laurie,

  I feel that I must send one line to say how deeply grieved I was to hear your husband had been killed at the front. I knew him as a most excellent sportsman, and mourn his loss very much. My deep sympathy is with you at this sad time when your home is made desolate.

  Please do not think of answering this.

  I remain,

  Yours sincerely,

  Manvers.

  (From Brigadier-General Farmar, C.B., C.M.G.)

  Headquarters, 2nd Army.

  March 20th, 1915.

  My dear Mrs. Laurie,

  I cannot tell you how shocked I was to hear the dreadful news: only to-night; but you at home must have heard of it days ago. B——’s letter was my first intimation. Somehow it came absolutely unexpectedly: of course, one lives in the middle of these awful sights and happenings, but he was so strong and so full of energy that it seemed unbelievable that he should be taken. He has been a friend of mine, and a very real one, for a good many years now. I saw him not long ago. He would have been sure to have got a Brigade soon if this terrible thing had not happened. I have heard no details, but will try and find out and tell you: unfortunately, his battalion is right at the other end of the line to where we are, but if I can get down I will. Dear Mrs. Laurie, I do feel for you most deeply, and my own loss of a friend as well. If there is anything I can do, it would be a kindness to ask me, and a relief to do something for you.

  Yours very sincerely,

  Jaspar Farmar.

  (From Colonel Anderson.)

  Headquarters, 8th Division.

  March 22nd, 1915.

  Dear Mrs. Laurie,

  About ten days ago I received a copy of Col. Laurie’s “History of the Royal Irish Rifles” which he had very kindly promised to send me. I was kept very busy on duty, so much so that I never had time to see him and thank him. And now, to my great grief, I have to write and tell you how very grateful I was for the book, and at the same time how very deeply I sympathize with you in your great loss. I need scarcely tell you how splendidly the Royal Irish Rifles did in the battle of Neuve Chapelle, and how grandly they were led by their Colonel.

  My father had been in the 83rd many years ago, and I had written the history of my own regiment, so we had bonds of sympathy, and I had had several talks with your husband. So you must please accept my very deepest sympathy in his death, and in your very great loss.

  Believe me,

  Yours sincerely,

  W. Hasturp Anderson.

  (From a cousin.)

  Antrim Castle,

  Ireland.

  March 24th, 1915.

  …I had the very greatest respect for George; he was an ideal soldier and comrade. May God in His mercy comfort you!…

  Massereene.

  (From Mrs. Clinton Baker.)

  Bayfordbury,

  Hertford.

  March 28th, 1915.

  Writing of her son, she says: “Osbert feels his Colonel’s death deeply. When telling me of it, he said: ‘I could only write a short letter; I know you will have written to Mrs. Laurie to try to soften the blow.’—‘Ten young officers and 250 men have now been sent out from home.’”

  (From General and Mrs. Bird.[11])

  22, Albany Villas,

  Brighton.

  March 29th, 1915.

  …We have not written to tell you how deeply we sympathize with you in your great sorrow, as I know letters are of no comfort in times of sadness, but to-day, in a letter we received, such words of admiration were written of Colonel Laurie that I felt I should like to write and repeat them: “Colonel Laurie handled his battalion to perfection during the attack on Neuve Chapelle, and his death is an irreparable loss to the 1st Battalion.”

  We have always heard what a splendid soldier Colonel Laurie was, and our country does so need such leaders now in the army to bring victory….

  (From General Sir John Keir, K.C.B.)

>   May 4th, 1915.

  Dear Mrs. Laurie,

  I have such a deep admiration and respect for your late husband, for Col. Laurie was, as you know, in command of the 28th M.I. in the column I commanded in S. Africa, where I learnt to appreciate his value as a soldier and his many other sterling qualities. After the campaign we used to hear from one another on occasions of mutual congratulation and the like. His loss to the Service is a very great one, but one cannot imagine a more glorious ending to a fine career, falling at the head of the regiment he loved so well, and which he led with such skill and bravery. His name remains one held in honour for all time.

  Yours sincerely,

  J.N. Keir.

  (From General the Right Hon. Sir Nevil Macready, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.)

  War Office.

  April 2nd, 1915.

  My dear Mrs. Laurie,

  Only yesterday I was aware of your address. I write only a line to ask you to accept my deep and sincere sympathy in the loss you have sustained. You indeed have given to the Country of your best, and if there is any consolation it may be in the fact that my old friend died as every soldier would wish to, at the head of his battalion in a successful action.

  Trusting you and the children are well.

  Yours ever sincerely,

  C.N. Macready.

  (From W.F.E. Denison, Esq.)[12]

  Ossington,

  Newark, Notts.

  July 18th, 1915.

  Dear Mrs. Laurie,

  Thank you so much for sending me that nice photograph of Colonel Laurie. I think the likeness is excellent. I am so glad to possess it, and shall value it greatly always. I do think of him so constantly, every time I go by Carlton and see all the things there in which he took so great an interest, and the fields where one went shooting, and he was so keen about it all. There is a recollection for me at almost every gateway. He was indeed a most kind and sympathetic neighbour to us and a real friend. Thank you again and again for the photograph; it is most kind of you to have sent it to me.

  Yours very sincerely,

  W.F.E. Denison.

  Lady Cicely Pierrepont wrote:—

  Thoresby Park,

  Ollerton, Notts.

  September 15th, 1915.

  Dear Mrs. Laurie,

  …I have never had the opportunity till now of telling you how we all felt Colonel Laurie’s death, nor how much his unfailing cheery and cheering presence in the hunting field has been and will again be missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him, and everybody who hunted with him will always retain the very pleasantest memories of his kindness….

  The following is an extract from 4th Corps Orders, dated March 14th, 1915, by Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bart., K.C.B., C.V.O.:—

  “The brilliant success which the troops of the 4th Corps have achieved in the capture of Neuve Chapelle is of the first importance to the Allied cause, especially at this period of the war. The heroism and gallantry of the regimental Officers and men, and the assistance afforded them by the artillery units, is deserving of the highest praise, and the Corps Commander desires to congratulate them on the severe defeat they have inflicted on the enemy, whose losses amount to not less than 4,000 men in killed and prisoners alone. The magnificent behaviour of the infantry units is deserving of the highest commendation, and in deploring the loss of those gallant comrades who have given their lives for their King and Country, Sir Henry Rawlinson hopes that all Officers and men fully realize that what they have accomplished, in breaking through the German line, is an achievement of which they should all feel justly proud.”

  THE LATE COLONEL LAURIE.

  To the Editor of the “Irish Times.”

  Sir,

  I was moved even to tears, which I trust were not unmanly, at your touching reference to the glorious death, last Sunday, of my dear, lamented friend, Colonel Laurie, who would, I had hoped, in the course of nature, have survived me for many a year. It may, perhaps, be of interest to your readers to know that this gallant soldier, who—I can speak with some knowledge—proved himself excellent in every relation of life, and who, felix opportunitate mortis, died for us and for our liberties at the head of a renowned Irish regiment—the Royal Irish Rifles—had, though not himself an Irishman, connections and associations with this country of which he was justly proud. His wife is a great granddaughter of the Right Hon. John Foster (Lord Oriel), the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He himself was the great-grandson of an illustrious Irishman, Dr. Inglis, the Bishop of Nova Scotia, who was the first Anglican Colonial Bishop ever consecrated—a Trinity College, Dublin, man, and the son of a rector of Ardara, in Donegal. Dr. Inglis emigrated to America, and was, on the eve of the War of the American Independence, Rector of Holy Trinity Church, New York, then (and I believe now) the principal Anglican Episcopal Church in that city. Dr. Inglis was a pronounced loyalist. He was warned not to read the State prayers for the King and the Parliament. He disregarded the warning. His reading of those prayers was interrupted by forced coughs and sneezings and other manifestations of disfavour. He was then the recipient of many threatening letters. On the next Sunday his voice, when reading the obnoxious prayers, was drowned by a clattering of arms. On the Sunday following guns were actually levelled at him as he read the prayers quite undismayed, having, like his great-grandson, the heart and courage of a hero. Yielding to the entreaties of friends, he left New York for Canada, and on his return, more than twenty years afterwards, to New York, when Bishop of Nova Scotia, he disinterred a magnificent silver coffee pot which he had buried on the eve of his hurried departure, and found in the place he had left it. That coffee pot is a precious heirloom in Colonel Laurie’s family. There is a brass tablet to the memory of Dr. Inglis in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, erected there by the enthusiasm of Chancellor H.V. White, Rector of St. Bartholomew’s, whose own ministry was for some years in the Colonies.

  Colonel Laurie’s father, General J.W. Laurie, C.B.,[13] served with great distinction in the Crimea, where he was twice wounded; in the Indian Mutiny, and in the Transvaal. He was Honorary Colonel of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and, having sat for some years in the Canadian House of Commons, was from 1895 till 1906 Unionist Member in the Imperial Parliament for the Pembroke Burghs, and a prime favourite with all sorts and conditions of men in the House of Commons. Colonel Laurie’s elder brother, Captain Haliburton Laurie, who was one of the most deservedly loved men of his generation, fell in the Boer War in 1901. If he had not been a great soldier, Colonel Laurie would have been a great historian. His knowledge of history, more especially of military history, was profound, and his memory was singularly retentive. He had, moreover, a very sound judgment in the marshalling of facts. He had written with a pen of light the history of his regiment, which he loved, and which loved him, and on which in life and in death he had shed additional lustre.

  Yours, etc.,

  J.G. Swift MacNeill.

  Dublin, March 20th, 1915.

  (From the “Irish Telegraph,” March 20th, 1915.)

  R.I. RIFLES ENGAGED.

  Lieut.-Colonel Laurie Killed.

  Other Regimental Losses.

  Information reached Belfast yesterday that Lieutenant-Colonel George Brenton Laurie, commanding the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was killed in action, near Neuve Chapelle, last Sunday. The deceased officer was exceedingly well known in Belfast, where he commanded the Rifles Depot for three years, and the news of his demise has been received with sorrow at Victoria Barracks. He was closely connected by marriage with the North of Ireland.

  Colonel Laurie’s Military Career.

  Lieutenant-Colonel George Brenton Laurie, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, who has died a soldier’s death at the head of the gallant 83rd, will long be remembered by the old corps, in which he spent thirty years. He was the author of the splendid “History of the Royal Irish Rifles” which was issued last year, and dedicated by him to the regiment on the 125th anniversary of the raising
of the 83rd and 86th Foot, now the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Rifles. He considered the writing of that history, which runs into 540 pages, a fitting close to his career in the regiment, but he remained on in the Service, and the unexpected European War has made it otherwise, and now he has ended his career on the field of battle. The closing words of his preface were:—

  “May the officers and men of the Royal Irish Rifles win yet more laurels for their regiment by their staunchness whenever their Sovereign calls for their services in war!”

  When Colonel Laurie penned those words last spring, he little dreamt that within a few short months the officers and men of both the 83rd and 86th would be shedding their life’s blood freely in France, and now he himself has made the supreme sacrifice, and with Captains Master, Reynolds, Davis, Kennedy, Stevens, Allgood, Whelan, Miles, Biscoe, Lieutenants Rea, Whitfield, Burges, and Tyndall, Second-Lieutenants Magenis, Davy, Gilmore, Swaine, and Eldred—many of them his old comrades—sleeps his last long sleep in a foreign grave.

  The son of a soldier (the late General Laurie), Colonel Laurie received his first commission in the Rifles in September, 1885, and joined the 2nd Battalion, then quartered at Halifax, the last station occupied by British infantry in Canada, and it is interesting to recall that he was the last officer to join the battalion with the rank of Lieutenant, as an Army Order issued some time later directed subalterns to begin service as Second-Lieutenants. Halifax, Colonel Laurie tells us in his history of the regiment, was a delightful station, and all were sorry to leave it, the men especially so, and over 300 of them gave in their names as married without leave. Lieutenant Laurie moved with the battalion to Gibraltar in November, 1886, and to Egypt in January, 1888. In 1889 Lieutenant Laurie went up the Nile with the battalion, which was detained at Assouan so long that it missed the fight at Toski. He afterwards served at Malta and in various home stations, and did not again see active service until 1901, when he was sent from England as a special service officer for mounted infantry work, and took command of No. 2 Mounted Infantry Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifles.