For Private Circulation...

My dear Children, I dedicate this little volume to you in memory of your father, who, as you know, fell on March 12th, 1915, in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. These Letters, which were written to me from France during the first winter of the World War, do not in any way pretend to literary attainment; they are just the simple letters of a soldier recording as a diary the daily doings of his regiment at the front. Often were they penned under great difficulties, and many a time under a rain of fir

Colonel George Laurie came from a military family. His father a distinguished General, and his uncle both served in the Crimea and elsewhere, and many of his near relations joined the army, and were well-known zealous soldiers of their Sovereign. His elder brother fell in the Boer War in the beginning of this century, and he himself saw active service in the Sudan and in South Africa, before he landed in France to take his share in the great World War. On being promoted to the command of his bat

Telegram, November 4th, 1914 : "Get gun oiled." [ Note. —This was a private code message sent to me in London signifying that the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles was ordered to France with the 25th Brigade, 8th Division, on November 5th, 1914. Information of the day of departure was not permitted beforehand.—F.V.L.] Hurstley Park Camp, Winchester. November 5th, 1914. My dear F——. I telegraphed to you yesterday not to worry about any more equipment for me, as I should not be able to get the thin

In Trenches. December 2nd, 1914. My Dear F—— Am sitting in my dug-out scrawling this by the light of a signaller's lamp. I was awake at 4.30 a.m., working hard practically ever since, and it is now dark with a beautiful moon rising. I have been very busy trying to get ahead of a German trench which they had sapped up to us. We arranged to have it stormed by Capt. O'Sullivan and Mr. Graham, but as the Royal Engineers could not let me have an officer to put a mine in just then, it had to be postpo

"In some of his Christmas annuals Charles Dickens delighted to portray the misanthropic grumbler who hated to see others enjoy themselves, and always laid himself out to be especially miserable at Christmas time, exaggerating the effects of the season by assuming a frozen aspect, and like an iceberg, chilling all around him; yet as the same iceberg when swept into the Gulf Stream finds the surrounding air and water by which it is enveloped will not admit its retaining its frigid isolation, it gr

In Billets. January 2nd, 1915. My dear F—— I am not asking you to do anything to-day for me, as I hope to come in person, leaving here on Monday morning. The hour of my arrival at Carlton depends on whether I can get through quickly or not, and whether the Kaiser tries to sink the Boulogne to Folkestone boat. Knowing his peculiarities, I think he would probably wait until he found an emigrant ship well laden with women and children. What brutes the Germans have proved themselves! After heavy rai

In Billets. February 1st, 1915. My dearest F—— Here we are in our reserve billets, and not sorry either. The enemy threw a shell in beside us this morning as I was getting up, to show that he had not forgotten us! It must have come 5 miles at least. He is a humorist, too, of a grim sort, for 3 days ago he bombarded the little town (French) of Estaires with French shells. I suppose some gun he had captured from them. Anyhow, his ammunition is certainly, as a rule, not as good as the stuff he was

In Trenches. March 1st, 1915. I enclose you a letter from one of my old Generals, Sir John Keir. I wrote to congratulate him on receiving the "K" to his C.B., which I helped to win him at Boshbult, S. Africa, 1902. Do not trouble to send it back again. They have no children, and I have never met Lady Keir so far, but if I get back to England no doubt I shall, though his division is in Cork at present. Yesterday we were once more under heavy fire. One shell exploded beside two men who were trying

( 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

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....

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 considere

Interesting particulars of the part played by the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in the attack on Neuve Chapelle are given by Sergeant-Major Miller, who is now in the Mater Misericordiæ Hospital, Dublin, with a severe wound in the eye received on that occasion. The Rifles formed part of the Fourth Army Corps, which, with the Indian Corps, as reported by Field-Marshal French, carried out the assault on the German lines. Prior to the action General Sir Henry Rawlinson inspired his troops with an

( From a Military Correspondent. ) "Well done; very well done indeed." Such was the remark of a General standing at a Ginchy débris heap as the Irish battalions moved past him on the way to a rest point in the captured line. The numbering of the platoons did not reach the morning's total, but the men had conquered, and they bore aloft the trophies of the battle, helmets and such like, which they waved at the General. All had contributed to the joy of Ireland from Cork to Derry, Ulsterman and Nat

[ A Poem written by Rifleman J. Dickson. ] Dear Franc, Just a few lines of verse about the Royal Irish Rifles at Neuve Chapelle.—Yours truly, No. 9180 Rifleman J. Dickson, "A" Coy., 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, Dublin....

[1] Major Herbert Stepney, Irish Guards, was killed while commanding the Battalion in the first Battle of Ypres. [2] Major Osbert Clinton-Baker, of Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire, Second-in-Command 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, gazetted Colonel of the Regiment in May, about two months after Colonel Laurie fell. He was mortally wounded and missing at Fromelles on May 9th, 1915. [3] Capt. Haliburton Laurie fell in the South African War at Philippolis, on a kopje, while rescuing a wounded patrol. [