Son of John and Kate Hartness, of 17 Hurstwood Road, Durham Road, Sunderland.
Linda Gowans has submitted the following:-
Reginald Hartness (Rex) was born in 1898. In 1901 his mother is at 20 St Mark’s Road with four children including Reginald. The 1911 census finds the family at 53 General Graham Street and gives more detail: father John George, born Sunderland 1869, is a Ship Surveyor, mother Katherine Helen was born Tinwald, Dumfriesshire, 1873, and the children were all born Sunderland.
Reginald enlisted at Sunderland in the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own, the title bestowed in 1861 by Queen Victoria on the death of Colonel-in-Chief, Prince Albert), and was posted to the 1st/10th Bn. of the London Regiment.
Formed in August 1914, the Battalion sailed from Plymouth in late July 1915 for Gallipoli, landing at Suvla Bay on August 11th 1915 and engaging in operations against Turkish forces.
In December they were evacuated to Egypt due to severe casualties from combat, disease and harsh weather, and the following year were involved in the defence of the Suez Canal.
In 1917 they went to Palestine, taking part in the Battles for Gaza and Jerusalem. The Third Battle of Gaza was fought 31 October -7 November 1917 between British and Turkish forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The actual attack on Gaza was launched on the night of 1/2 November, and succeeded in pushing back the Turkish lines, but at the cost of 350 dead, 340 missing and 2,000 wounded. Rifleman Hartness was not at first counted among the dead, but a telegram from Third Echelon, Alexandria, dated 7th January 1918, to the Record Office R. E. , Tavistock Square in London, includes him in a list of names of those killed in action.
The Battalion ended the war at Beirut. Reginald Hartness is remembered on the Jerusalem Memorial, which stands in Jerusalem War Cemetery, 4.5 kilometres north of the walled city, situated on the neck of land at the north end of the Mount of Olives.
Reginald Hartness is remembered in Sunderland on S140.009, S140.010 and S140.048 part 5
