SOLDIER DETAILS:
Hartley,
Harold Kenneth
Private 8th Battalion 874758
April 29, 1917
Aubigny
Communal Cemetery
Born Milton ON to Alex/Anne Hartley
Maple
Leaf Legacy Project |
Aubigny Communal
Maple Leaf Legacy Project
Private Hartley
Virtual War Memorial
Aubigny Communal
Commonwealth War Graves
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Private
Hartley's name does not appear on the Victoria Park or
Haltonville Cenotaph but he was a Milton Soldier.
He is remembered on the Virtual War Memorial and in the
Book of Remembrance, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa.
He is buried in Aubigny Communal
Cemetery, Pas de Calais France, in Grave II. G. 84. |
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| Other Links:
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| The action of the 8th Infantry Battalion during
the period of late April 1917 is one of those that is written of
in great detail in the unit war diary, which you will find at
these links: Page
1; Page
2; Page
3; Page
4; and Page
5. |
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SOLDIER SUMMARY:
| Private Hartley was
born in Milton Ontario on September 11, 1891. At the time he
attested he was a married farmer (Hazel) in Bowsman River
(Manitoba) however his parent still resided in Milton. He joined
the 184th Battalion (Lisgar, Manitoba) on March 7, 1916.
Private Hartley was transferred to the 11th Reserve Battalion
in England in November 1916 with subsequent assignment to the
8th Infantry Battalion (2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Division). He
was admitted to hospital with measles in December 1916 and
released by the New Year. His service record indicates
that he died of wounds received in action on April 29, 1917, at
the No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station. No further details are
given in his records.
In late April 1917 the 8th Infantry Battalion had come off
the Battle of Vimy Ridge and was active in the 2nd Battle of the
Scarpe and the Attack on the Arleux Loop. In particular, the 8th
Battalion was involved at Arleux-En-Gohelle (Nicholson Sketch
40), reported as the only tangible success of the combined
British and Canadian operation. Nicholson records that the 8th
Battalion, attacking over a low rise into Arleux, was hit by
considerable machine gun fire from the village and woods to the
south. Private Hartley was one of the 1,000 or more casualties
of this offensive. The Germans "backed off" and the
Canadians now had a small salient established, 400 yards from
the enemy's next line of defence.
The War Diary provides the direction for the attack on the
Arleux Loop by the 8th Battalion in April
1917.
The war diary reports on the night of the 29th that there
were 50 regular soldiers (not officers) killed, 200 wounded and
50 missing. Private Hartley was one of those men wounded that
apparently died later in the No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station. |
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The soldier pages contain information
that is available from a number of resources. The following hyperlinks
are active where the information is available:
The summary of the service is taken from
the soldier's service records, if they were available from Library and
Archives Canada. A complete copy of the service record is
available in electronic and paper format in the Alex
Cooke Memorial Archives at the Milton Historical Society.
Using that summary, combined with the key references, a summary of the
events leading up to the death of the soldier has been prepared.
The research information available is as noted on the Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group web site Matrix
Project as well as in the Library and Archives Canada On-Line
War Diaries.
A summary of all the soldiers is
contained on the Web Blog "Great
War Soldiers of Milton, Ontario CANADA". Please also
be sure to purchase your own copy of "Milton
Remembers World War I - The Men and Women We Never Knew" by
John Challinor II and Jim Dills, edited by Ken Lamb. |
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