April 28th and 29th  1915:

April 27th 1915:

April 26th 1915:

Louis was in 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. This battalion formed part of the 20th Brigade, which in turn rolled up into the 7th Division. He has just arrived at La Gorgue, close to Laventie. The 20th Brigade has just been involved in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Having only joined up in late 1914 he is part of a small party of reinforcements that joined the 2nd Battalion in April. He notes that he enters the  ( reserve) trenches straight away, relieving Indians. This would likely be the 7th Meerut division who had also been involved in Neuve Chapelle.

By coincidence , one of the Brigades within the 7th Meerut was the Bareilly Brigade which also contained the 4th Black Watch, within which Louis's brother Norman fought. A swe know already, Norman and the 4th Battalion Black Watch had already been heavily involved in the action at Neuve Chapelle.

The 2nd Battalion Scots Guards war diary is somewhat scathing about the state of the trenches they inherited-

'Battalion takes over trenches of the Bareilly Brigade. The Indian trenches my dear. Those of the 4th Brigade Black Watch indescribably filthy. Their sanitary arrangements NIL.'

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.

April 24th 1915:

Fatigue and medical inspection having arrived at Le Havre. Louis notes that he has written to his brother Raymond, who at this time was still at Broughty Ferry , and Smeaton ( unknown).

April 25th 1915:

Transportation up to the Front, was clearly not luxurious.

April 23rd 1915:

Louis Harley maintained his diary entries for 1915 in a 1912 diary.

He amends the days to correspond with the dates but appears to start one day out on 22 April 1915, which he has annotated as a Friday when in fact it was a Thursday. He corrects this in May. All his entries will be shown in this blog as he wrote the. Some will have been written in real time , others no doubt were only added shortly after the date.

His first entry records his departure with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards from Wellington Barracks in order to sail to France on the evening of 22 April 1915.

Exactly 100 years ago today: