- See Ernest Hartley’s entry on the Board of Trade’s Ancestry public tree.
- This information updates the group’s previous research published on the former DTI website (now archived by the National Archives).
- Do you have any more information about Ernest Hartley? If so the War Memorial Research Group would love to hear from you
Name recorded on Board of Trade Memorial: E. Hartley
Born: September 1886, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Date of Death: 30 June 1917
Age at death: 30
Service, Regiment, Corps, etc: London Regiment
Unit, Ship, etc: 1/15th Battalion (Civil Service Rifles)
Enlisted: London
Rank: Rifleman (Service No: 4781 and 532121)
Decorations: WW1 Service Medals (Victory Medal and British War Medal)
War (and theatre): WW1 (France and Flanders)
Manner of Death: Killed in Action (KIA)
Family Details:
Residence: Chelsea
Home Department: Board of Trade – Finance Department
Civilian Rank: Abstractor
Cemetery or Memorial: Menin Gate (Panel 54); Board of Trade War Memorial; Horsforth Cenotaph; Horsforth Providence Chapel War Memorial
Biography:
Ernest Hartley was born in about September 1886 in Leeds, Yorkshire. He was baptised on 22 November 1886 at the United Methodist Free Church, Tong Road, New Wortley, Leeds. His parents were John Hartley (1851-1916) and Mary Ellen Scholefield (1854-1917). He had three brothers – Frederick Hartley (1880-1962), William Clifford Hartley (1891-?) and John Alan Hartley (1896-1979) and a sister, Lilian Hartley (1885-1959). Ernest’s father was an accountant and head of the firm J. and S. Hartley, incorporated accountants based at Butts Court, Albion Street, Leeds. He was a member of the Horsforth District Council and member of the Leeds and County Liberal Club.
In 1891, the Hartley family were living at 13 Rose Terrace, Horsforth, Leeds. In the 1901 census, the Hartley family are living at “Aysgarth”, Broadgate Lane, Horsforth. By 1901 Ernest is aged 14 and working as a junior bank clerk.
He later moved to London. living at 36 Sussex Street, Warwick Square, Middlesex and worked for the Finance Department at the Board of Trade.
Like so many others, Ernest enlisted to serve alongside friends and work colleagues in one of the so-called pals battalions. He enlisted as a Rifleman in November 1915 in the Civil Service Rifles (also known as the 15th Battalion, London Regiment) during WW1. This was an infantry regiment which formed part of the London Regiment and part of the volunteer and territorial army force. You can read more about the Civil Service Rifles in Jill Knight’s book “The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War: All Bloody Gentlemen“.
It appears that Ernest Hartley, like Abraham Hertz, was among the casualties sustained by his Battalion during what the regimental history describes as “three very unlucky days” leading up to 3 July 1917. This followed a period of rest and reorganisation at St Omer, after they had taken part in the first phase of the capture of the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge.
The military action at the Battle of Messines in June 1917 was the battalion’s first major engagement. After Messines, the Division spent 12 days resting and recuperating in Ebblinghem near St Omer. On 28 June 1917 the men marched back to the front line, staying overnight at Meteren and Voormezeele on their way. At the beginning of July 1917, according to the Battalion War Diary, the men were at Spoilbank in Oak trench which had been captured during the attack on 7 June.
The Civil Service Rifles history states: “The weather was bad, the trenches were in a perfectly rotten state of repair, and the men had no protection against persistent shelling …… the losses from shell fire amounted to about forty all ranks ….” (The History of the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles (published 1921). These events are also described in Jill Knight’s book, “The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War“. (The late and much missed, Jill Knight, was the founder of the Board of Trade War Memorial Research Group).
Only six months before he died, is father, John Hartley died of heart failure aged 66 in Horsforth (as reported in the local Yorkshire Evening Post (“Death of Leeds Accountant”) on 6 December 1916. Also even more tragically only 6 weeks before he died, Ernest was married in Kensington to Alice Rouart (1894-1961). He was also expected to take up a commission to be an officer.
Ernest has no known grave. His name is recorded and remembered at the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial which names more than 54,000 soldiers who died in Belgium who have no known grave. The Menin Gate, which was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, is one of the most famous of the WW1 war memorials and since 1928 it has been the location of the annual evening rendition of the “Last Post” which is played every evening at 8pm under the memorial.
Ernest Hartley is also commemorated on the Board of Trade War Memorial and on the scroll inside the Civil Service Rifles Memorial at Somerset House, London WC2.
In his home town of Horsforth, Ernest Hartley is remembered on the St Margarets Church War Memorial, the Horsforth Providence Chapel War Memorial (which used to be located on Broadgate Lane where the Hartley’s lived) and also on the Horsforth Cenotaph. The cenotaph includes brass panels with the names of 212 men and 1 woman who died in WW1. the memorial cost £720 and was unveiled on 11 March 1922 by Lord of the Manor Montague Spencer-Stanhope. An additional lectern was built in front of memorial in 1953 in memory of those who died in WW2.
Board of Trade War Memorial 