Ernest John Harland

Sergeant Ernest John Harland, Service Number 3317 was a member of the Honourable Artillery Company, Second Battalion (Infantry,) when he was killed in action 9th October 1917, during the third battle of Ypres, Passchendaele. 

Ernest and Teaching

Ernest had begun his own education at East Molesey National School. The National Schools were run by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education and aimed to provide elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor. Ernest’s school was on two sites within the village of East Molesey: the girls’ and infants’ school about 400 yards away from the boys’. Ernest had to walk only a few doors down Park Road to attend. The school, led by headmaster George Wright, was oversubscribed, having places for 150 boys but average attendance of 160.⁷ He remained there as a pupil-teacher.

Life as a pupil-teacher is frequently referred to as arduous. In addition to classroom work in very large classes, there was training before and after school each day with the headteacher, evening classes and often Saturday mornings at a pupil-teacher training centre. There were other challenges that came with responsibility at a young age, as Ernest’s sister Elizabeth was to find to her cost. This from Surrey Comet of Saturday 10 October 1896:

In preparation for applying to a training college he had taken various courses and examinations in physiography, and freehand, model and blackboard drawing. He took the entrance exam for Winchester Training College in December 1904, gaining a first-class pass. Students were also required to take the Archbishops’ Entrance Examination in which he did not do so well, achieving only a third-class pass.

During 1904 and 1905 Ernest played football for Molesey St. Paul’s. His work as a back seems to have been appreciated, judging by reports in the local press. This is one of his accolades from a game against Hampton Wick on 4th March 1905: ‘After a capital display of back work by Harland and Stott, the whistle blew and Molesey ran out winners by three goals to one’⁸

At War

He enlisted as a Private in the Honourable Artillery Company at Armoury House, Finsbury Park, on 31st March 1915, and was posted the same day. When Ernest joined it was at Orpington, then it moved to Tadworth, and then finally to the Tower of London in August 1915 to prepare for war.

The Honourable Artillery Company is the oldest regiment in the British Army, dating back to 1537 when Henry VIII granted a charter to the Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns ‘for the better increase of the defence of this our realm and the maintenance of the science of artillery’. It fought in the English Civil War and sent members to the Boer War. In 1908, following army reforms, it become a Territorial Force (T.F.)—part-time soldiers. It was to send seven units to France, and some 13,000 men. The 2nd Battalion HAC fought as infantry throughout the First World War.

As the HAC was a T.F. unit, which had been established for ‘Home Service’ only. T.F. soldiers had to further volunteer for overseas service and Ernest did so on the 31st May 1915 at the Tower of London.

Promotions followed: to Lance Corporal at the beginning of August 1916 and, by the beginning of October, he had substantive promotion to Corporal, having temporarily held that rank from September 1916. Finally he reached the rank of Sergeant on the 15th May 1917. His medical inspection report from the time he enlisted tells us that Ernest was 5ft 10¾in tall, with a 36½in chest. He had perfect vision and his physical development was described as fair.  He would have had a period of training and had risen in the ranks to Sergeant, prior to his arrival in France. We know that Ernest, with the HAC 2/1st battalion left Southampton for France on board the paddle steamer La Marguerite, arriving in Le Havre on the 3rd October 1916. His service record states that he proceeded to the front, near Steenwerck, on 4th October 1916.

Troop transport paddle steamer La Marguerite

The 2/1st HAC was placed under the command of 22nd Brigade in the 7th Division. Whilst in France the Division were held in reserve, as the Battle of the Somme was beginning to wind down in preparation for the winter, so were not called into the line for any major offensive. Once at the front, Ernest suffered from bouts of illness. He was first admitted to hospital in November 1916 with dysentery, followed by colitis, before being discharged back to his unit on 23rd December.

The New Year brought the 7th Division up the line and they formed part of Fanshawe’s V Corps and were involved in the operations of the Ancre. These were skirmishes to establish height advantage over the German positions; essentially they were the very last flickerings of the Somme Campaign.

7th Division were involved in the capture of the Munich Trench, 10th–11th January. The attack, by a brigade of the 7th Division, began at 5:00 a.m., when the leading companies lined up on tapes, 200–300 yds (180–270 m) from the Munich Trench. At 6:37 a.m. three divisional artilleries began a standing barrage on the trench and a creeping barrage started in no man’s land in thick fog. Movement was so difficult that the barrage moved at 100 yd (91 m) in ten minutes. German resistance was slight, except at one post where the garrison held on until 8:00 a.m. After the fog cleared at 10:30 a.m., the ground was consolidated, most of it being free from observation by the Germans.

The area around the Munich Trench, which may be seen running north–south, left of centre, top. Copyright unknown.

Operations continued in the Ancre until the end of February, with actions taking place all along the line designed to advance the Allies lines and to harass the enemy.

As the war dragged on into 1917 the 7th Division, still part of V Corps under Fanshawe, now found itself subsumed into the Fifth Army under Gough. The war was going badly for the Germans resulting in their retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They pursued a scorched earth policy, destroying what they could in order to slow down the advancing Allies.

Ernest and the rest of his battalion found themselves on the move again working northwards, arriving in the Arras sector in April. The Hindenburg Line near Bullecourt was a heavily fortified German stronghold and it became apparent that this needed to be neutralised. The first attack on Bullecourt took place in April but met with fierce resistance so essentially failed in its objectives. The Division was involved in a flanking operation at the second Battle of Bullecourt which took place in May 1917. The 7th Division along with the 62nd finally took the town on May 17th and held on to it. In August, Ernest was granted 10 days leave in the field, so he would not have been able to return home to see his wife and young daughter.

The Division retired from the line and then moved north into the Ypres sector and took part on the Battle of Polygon Wood as part of X Corps under Morland. The Allies were up against dispersed and camouflaged German defences, using shell-hole positions and pillboxes. They also held back much of their infantry for counter-attacks. This strategy meant that as British advances became weaker and disorganised by losses, fatigue, poor visibility and the channelling effect of waterlogged ground, they met more and fresher German defenders. The action became attritional as attack and counter attack developed and no overall gains were made on either side.

The operation that saw the death of Ernest was the attack on Becelaere 9th October 1917. The H.A.C. War Diary at the time states:

The 2nd HAC were to attack the village of Reutel, to the west of Becelaere. On their left were the 2nd Royal Warwickshires, with the 9th Devons as Brigade reserve. Zero hour was 0520 9th October. It had rained the week before, so the ground was sodden and the going was extremely heavy for all the advancing soldiers. Not many units managed to get to their starting points on time, some lost their way to the jumping off point and at least one officer was killed when he led his men into the path of a number of Germans.

A barrage was laid down on the enemy, and the battalion advanced only 50 yards behind it.  Battalion Headquarters then appeared to lose touch with the advancing troops, and it was not until midday that it was confirmed that elements of the battalion had captured the village. Officer casualties had been so severe that no officer was present in Reutel. Interestingly, the War Diary records that ‘A’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies had suffered such heavy casualties that they were relieved.  Records show that Ernest was a member of ‘C’ company, which had had a stiff fight for a pill-box, costing the lives of most of a platoon.

The 2/1st HAC held the village and were relieved on the 10th. During the attack, the battalion suffered 296 casualties, including fifty-six dead, one of whom was Ernest. No officer that took part in the attack was not a casualty.

His body was never found. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing.

Probate records that his widow Elsie received £254 11s 0d. She was also in receipt of a widow’s pension of 21s. 3d. a week. After his death, Elsie received a package containing Ernest’s belongings.  These were: a pocket wallet, letter, photos and a lock of hair. Ernest had survived many battles in the Great War and whilst he paid the ultimate price, he followed the family military tradition.

Elsie Harland died in 1981 aged 96. She never remarried.

Researcher and Author: John Westwood, revised with additional material by John Vickers