in a successful action.
Trusting you and the children are well.
Yours ever sincerely,
Ossington,
Newark, Notts.
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,
Thoresby Park,
Ollerton, Notts.
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 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.
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,
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.,
Dublin,
(
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.
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