A few days after signing up Louis Harley travelled from Dundee to Caterham for training. Louis is standing front row furthest right.

The rest of December 1914 appears to have passed uneventfully. The next record of Louis is in January 1915.

Louis Harley's signing up papers

At the time of signing up , Louis Harley's medical examination showed that he was 25 years  old, 5'11'' tall, and weighed 143 pounds (10 stone 3 pounds). He had a 38" chest which he could expand by 4". He had lost two upper molars, had two vaccination marks from infancy, but otherwise no marks indicating 'congenital peculiarities or previous disease'. His general physical development was good.

Blog note:
If you have any connection with Louis Harley or any of the men listed in his diaries, or if you have found this useful please add a comment.

Louis Harley's birth certificate. His brothers Raymond, Walter and Norman were born in 1886,1887 and 1891 respectively.

A photo that survives is shown below. Louis's children believed it is of their Grandparents Louis (senior) and Marion, who married in 1885 , but this is uncorroborated. Marion died aged 52 in 1915, and Louis died in 1902. It is possible this photo shows a 39 year old, but she looks older. An alternative is that the photo is of William Harley (d.1911), father to Louis senior, and his wife Liz(d.1881). They married in 1854.

This blog will record over the next 3 years the time served by Louis Harley in the British Army in WW1.

He was born in Scotland in 1889 the third of 4 brothers. His father ran a successful florist and nursery business which he established first in Perth and then in Broughty Ferry. His grandfather, William, started the business in Edinburgh.

Louis's father, also named Louis, died in 1902 having suffered from diabetes. The obituary below appeared in the Dundee press on 20 December 1902. His mother Marion ( nee Lorimer) died in 1915.

'Death of a Dundee florist-The death occurred at his residence, Fenella, Broughty Ferry, yesterday morning of Mr Louis Harley, of the firm Messrs W. Harley & Sons , florists &Co. Dundee and Broughty Ferry. Mr Harley had not been in good health for some time, but the end came somewhat unexpectedly. Mr Harley belonged to Perth, and was a member of the Harley family which for so many years has carried on fruiterers business in the Fair City. Deceased who was 45 years of age managed the Dundee and Broughty Ferry businesses and was well known both in the city and suburb. He came to Dundee 27 years ago starting business in Reform Street a few doors north from the large shop which he occupied for a long time prior to his removal to premises in High Street. Mr Harley was a deacon of the Congregational Church in Broughty Ferry. He is survived by a widow and four sons.'



In 1912 Louis travelled to Ceylon to start work as a tea planter, but returned to Britain at his own expense in 1914 in order to voluntarily sign up at the onset of WW1.

He joined the Scots Guards in November 1914 and over the course of the next 3 years he recorded his experiences in pocket diaries. It is these notes , together with other personal information available today, that will inform this blog on a daily basis 100 years since these events happened.

The blog will start with his enlistment date later this month.

Blog note:
If you have any connection with Louis Harley or any of the men listed in his diaries, or if you have found this useful please add a comment.