26 May-1 June 1915:

No entries made by Louis except for letter to Raymond on 30 May. During this time the battalion were not engaged in action. The battalion diary records little activity except for inspection of the whole Division by General Joffre on 27 May. 3 Brigades were inspected with the 20th Brigade on the right and the 2nd battalion Scots Guards drawn up behind the Grenadier Guards.

With the assistance of the History of Ceylon Tea website and Louis's diaries from 1912 and 1913, more light can be shed on those to whom Louis was writing other than his brothers and other relatives. He wrote to a 'Smeaton' earlier in May.

Louis's diaries from before the war show what life in Ceylon was like as en ex-pat planter. Weekdays are spent walking the estate checking the tea and rubber plants/trees, arranging the pay for the workers, or being confined to the state bungalow during bad weather. At the weekend there was a community of fellow ex-pats who would get together to play tennis , occasionally travel down to Colombo or just meet up for breakfast or dinner. In these diaries Louis refers to the following (always just by surname).

Smeaton, Footner, Brown, McMullin, Cooper, Morland, Harris, Gourlay, Marriott, Huntly, Upshaw, Pole, and Duncan.  

Walter, his brother, also features in these earlier diary entries.

The following is an extract from the History of Ceylon tea site , relating to the management team who worked at the Sapumalkande Group estate in the Kelwani valley in Dehiowatta in the years around WW1. The full site can be found at http://www.historyofceylontea.com.

Most of the names above appear below. Smeaton being the Manager of the Estate and all the others being Asst. managers. It is noticeable how many ended their service with Sapumalkande in 1914, no doubt returning to Europe to sign up. At least two would not survive the war.

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.

EMPLOYEE HISTORY

W.G. Howie.	1920 - 1921	Asst. Manager
W. Harley	1920 - 1921	Asst. Manager
A.H. Irving	1917 - 1917	Asst. Manager
A.R. Hemsted	1917 - 1917	Asst. Manager
C.F.. Drakeand	1917 - 1917	Asst. Manager
A.F.B. Smeaton	1912 - 1921	Manager
W.. Hardey	1914 - 1914	Asst. Manager
R.P. Cooper	1914 - 1914	Asst. Manager
L. Harley	1914 - 1921	Asst. Manager
R.J. McMullin	1914 - 1914	Asst. Manager
K.J.T. Morland	1912 - 1914	Asst. Manager
A.H. Footner	1914 - 1914	Asst. Manager
N.. Brown	1914 - 1914	Asst. Manager
M.R. Harris	1912 - 1912	Asst. Manager
H.W. Byrde	1912 - 1912	Asst. Manager
W.A. Elwell	1905 - 1909	Manager
S.L. Harris	1898 - 1899	Manager

25 May 1915:

More letters. This one to his brother Walter, who by now had been back in the UK some two weeks.

24 May 1915:

23 May 1915:

Correspondence with Norrie- who at this time was injured form Aubers Ridge, and Aunt Jessica his father's younger sister.

Jessica lived in Perth , in Kinnoull where she was born, for many years. She never married and in later years moved to Southport with her sister, Eliza. They both lived long lives. Jessica only dying in the 60's.

At this stage of the war, Louis has now experienced two attacks. Aubers Ridge and Festubert.

The next real action involving the Scots Guards is Loos later in the year.

Without giving away too much about the outcome of the war for Louis and many of those to whom he wrote, the following gives a lovely insight into Norrie and Jessica.

 The excerpt above is from a letter written well after the war from Norrie to Louis. The lead in is that Walter has not been well and he has been given a regimen involving no golf, no square meals and no pints....Norrie then goes on to comment on Jessica.

At this stage also a request. Louis spent much of his life writing letters home. If anyone reading this blog has any of those letters or any connection with Louis and his brothers please do feel free to comment.

22 May 1915:

Miss Duncan is not known. She may have been an acquaintance in Ceylon, or more likely at home in Dundee.

21May 1915:

Louis writes again to Raymond and his friend,  Beath.
He also comments that Flett arrives with draft. There is a reference in his diary to Flett's number -12262. This identifies him as Alfred Flett  a Guardsman in the Scots Guards. There is no mention of a draft arriving in the Battalion diary although there is a reference to a draft of 250 men arriving about a week layer with Capt. Wynne-Finch.

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.

20 May 1915:

 Another quiet day following Festubert.
The Battalion diary shows that for the following few days the men were constantly parading, but not involved in any action.

19 May 1915:

The Battalion diary notes simply that the men marched to Busnes  'for a rest'.

18 May 1915:

In the days following the battle the Battalion recouped.

Festubert 100 years on shows little signs of the battle that took place there in May 1915, except for the war graves which are still kept meticulously.

17 May 1915:

Following the attack on 16 May the Scots Guards consolidated their position in the German trenches.

Louis was fortunate not to be in one of those Companies hardest hit- or he was one of the lucky ones if he was.

At this stage the fate of F Company was still not known.

In future days we will see newspaper reports of the deeds of the Scots Guards and F Company in particular. They came to be known as 'The Immortals".

Back in the UK , Walter the second of the four brothers had arrived from Ceylon, on 15 May. There,  he had joined The Ceylon Planters Rifles. In the UK he was about to join up with the HAC.

16 May 1915:

Having arrived in their positions in the British trenches at 11pm the night before, the artillery bombardment of the German wires started at 2.45 am. At the same time the men were given a tot of rum.

3 minutes before the attack at 3.15 , the first two platoons were lined up ready to scale the ladders.

The first attack proceeded so quickly towards the German line that as they reached it they had to slow down as British shells were still firing overhead. The Brigade diary notes that the few Germans still in their trenches were bayonetted.

The Scots Guards then ventured further , wheeling left , as subsequent pairs of platoons arrived. The final platoon consolidating the position in the trenches and waiting there for the Borders regiments.

In the general commotion a number of men , rather than wheeling left carried on straight with the Royal Welsh Fusilliers. Whilst they met little resistance they did meet with heavy machine gun crossfire suffering ' somewhat heavy casualties'.

Most of the men did incline left, partly because their left flank was exposed because the Border regiment had not been able to advance  as planned. Again  they came under heavy machine gun fire. At this point the whole of F troop came under attack. Some 40 men made their way through , but the rest became completely encircled by Germans. The Battalion diary comments that when these men were subsequently found they were lying amidst dead Germans- 'from appearances they must have fought the battle to the finish'.

The fighting continued till 5pm and at nightfall at about 8.30 the Scots Guards moved into the German trenches with the Grenadier Guards occupying the front line.

At this time the whole of F company was missing, one whole platoon of LF company was missing and RF company had only 30 men left. Of 16 officers at the start of the day, only 6 could be accounted for at the end.

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.

15 May 1915:

Again Louis refers to an impending attack. The Battalion diary includes much detail for 15 May.
The men left Hinges at 6pm, followed by 2 &6 Battalions Gordon Highlanders and 1 Battalion Grenadier Guards. They arrived at the junction of Rue Du Bois and Rue de l'Epinette at 8.40pm.

Because of heavy fire they could not proceed further above ground so joined the communication trenches to proceed to their position in the British trenches west of Princes Road at 11pm.

The Scots were in a position to lead the attack scheduled for 3.15 am on the morning of 16 May. Their objective being the orchard and then to swing left towards Quinque Rue.

Artillery bombardment was due to commence at 2.45am to ensure the German wire was cut. This was  cut for some 100 yards opposite, and the plan was for the Scots Guards to attack in a narrow line and with depth.

The diary shows in diagram the formation of the Battalion. 4 Companies (RF, F, G and LF) each with 4 platoons. Platoons advancing two at a time.

During the night the British wire was removed to allow the men to advance in the morning and ladders were put in place.

'The night was warm and all the men got some rest'

This is the day before the Battle of Festubert.

14 May 1915:

Another relatively quiet day. Letters to Raymond and Uncle John. Louis's father had two younger brothers , Ebenezer and John. Both became involved in the family business and in the 1911 census John  (b1867) had moved from Perth and was living in Edinburgh

13May 1915:

Near Hinges. Letters to Norrie ( Norman) and Eben(ezer). The latter could have been his father's brother or a first cousin William Ebenezer. Ebenezer was a popular family first name amongst the Harleys in the mid nineteenth century.

12 May 1915:

11 May 1915:

In Bethune. Louis wrote to Aunt Maggie- his late mother's sister and mother of David Prain Bruce.

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.

10th May 1915:

Louis fared better than his brother Norman at Aubers the day before. However , both were lucky compared to many.

The Scottish papers in Dundee reported the action in considerable detail in the ensuing days. Often they illustrated the story with news contained in letters written home by soldiers. The article below relates to Norman :

9th May 1915 continued:
Reports of the involvement of 4th Battalion Black Watch:

Norman appears in the other casualties:

The above is an extract from a letter by a member of the Battalion describing Norman's injury.
Norman subsequently wrote with further details to his brother Raymond.

9th May 1915:

The Battle of Aubers Ridge. The German lines were meant to have been subject to heavy bombardment that would lead to their breach , but the shelling was ineffective. A pincer movement from the Southern and Northern sectors failed to make any headway and the British Army suffered substantial casualties.

The Scots Guards were not heavily involved.

Louis notes that 'Norrie wounded'. Almost certainly he would only have known about this subsequently. This news , and the casualties suffered by the 4th Balck Watch were subsequently reported in the Dundee press over the coming days:

May 8th 1915:

A couple of things to note. Louis finally catches up with the correct day/date, having annotated the 7th as a Saturday he also marks the 8th as a Saturday ( correctly).

Secondly he manages to write another letter , this time to his friend Beath ( not known).

One questions whether he would have known they were planning for an attack, or whether this is another indication that he was writing up his entries a few days in arrears. It is likely that it was known, because the Battalion diary notes that on May 6th there was a meeting of officers and platoon commanders to discuss the attack which was originally scheduled for Saturday 8th and then on the 7th was delayed for 24 hours. The diary states the men were stationed at Rue du Bois.

This put the Scots Guards behind a number of other regiments in the British trenches, in the Northern Sector. When the attack came on 9th May the Scots Guards would be much luckier than many.

Louis may, or may not, have been aware that his brother Norman, with the 4th Battalion Black Watch
was also preparing to attack in the Southern Sector of Aubers Ridge . The Black watch were closer to the front line, and they would suffer much more.

May 7th 1915:

May 6th 1915:

Louis remained in billets in Laventie on May 6th. He taking time out to write to his brother Raymond.

May 5th 1915:

A quiet day in billets.

May 4th 1915:

Over the course of the 8 days in the trenches the 20th battalion had been subject to heavy shelling
and suffered casualties as a result. The daily battalion diary noted the dead and wounded.
As previously noted , as Louis was using a 1912 diary he used the dates from the diary and added the day in 1915. So he has marked the above as Wednesday 4th May. In fact at this stage he was still out by a day, as Wednesday was the 5th May. The battalion diary notes that the men were relieved and billeted in Laventie on the 5th.

The map below shows the location of Laventie , and its proximity to Neuve Chappelle and Aubers.

 The next few days would pass peacefully leading upto the 9th May.

May 3rd 1915:

May 2nd 1915:

May 1st 1915:

The Battalion diary notes that the troops came under heavy shelling during the early hours and an attack was expected -that never materialised.

April 30th 1915:

Louis notes that he is in the trenches and being bombarded by the Germans. Nevertheless he records that he wrote to two of his brothers. Raymond and Norman (Norrie). He may not be aware that Norrie is close by, with the 4th Battalion Black Watch.

The battalion diary notes that the Germans were shelling during these days , and men were being killed and wounded. The tenches were noted as requiring strengthening.