The following has been submitted:
Born West Bromwich.
Father Henry Francis Hartland, 14 Bond Street, Sankey Bridge.
Brothers George Henry, Samuel Jasper, William, Frederick and Francis.
7.6.1904 Attested for Scots Guards at Warrington, he was allocated the regimental number 5460.
He was aged 18 years 9 months and 5’8 in height
11.6.1904 London, posted to 2nd Battalion
7.6.1906 Granted 1st Good Conduct Badge, also trained as a signaller.
7.6.1907 Transferred to army reserve on completion of his army service. Informed the army he intended to apply to Lancashire Constabulary for appointment as a police constable.
Appointed Hartlepool Borough Police 3rd July 1907.
26.7.1909 Married Catherine Casey at St Marys Church, Broughton Street, Hartlepool. They had three children, all born Hartlepool. Francis born 21.2.1910, Winifred born 6.6.1911 and Catherine born 25.12.1913.
Lived 37 Middlegate Street, Hartlepool.
29.5.1911 The Watch Committee increased his pay from 4/- to 4/2d per day from the 10th June.
23.8.1911 Promoted from 2nd to 1st class constable from the 28th August.
23.6.1913 The Watch Committee increased his pay from 4/2d per day to 4/4d from the 5th July.
5.8.1914 Recalled to the colours, mobilized London with the 1st Battalion
13.8.1914 Entered France
7.9.1914 It was agreed by the Watch Committee that 10/6d per week be paid to the officer's wife and children while he was serving in the armed forces.
10.11.1914 Received gunshot wound to his right arm, taken to hospital in Boulogne then returned to England and admitted to a hospital in Leeds.
4.12.1914 Private Hartland who was serving in the 1st Battalion Scots Guards was now recovering from wounds in the 2nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds.
He wrote to a colleague in the Hartlepool force an account of some of his adventures:-
‘They can talk about South Africa as much as they like. They did not know what fighting was there. I suppose you will have read the letter I sent to the police office. There was one special incident I forgot to put in it. It happened whilst we were retiring from one position and had to run for our lives with the German maxim gun only about 50 yards behind us, and the Germans coming on in thousands. On jumping out of the trench I ran about 50 yards, and dropped on the top of several more behind a hedge. I had my bayonet fixed at the time, and on dropping on these others I caught my bayonet in some part of one of their coats, and being in such a scramble I could not get it free. The same fellows were shouting, ‘mercy’, so with not being able to get under cover I dropped my bayonet and rifle there and made another run for it.
The Germans were firing their maxim guns and rifles as well, only about 50 yards away. They had stopped in the trenches we had just left. It happened when I got up to make another run for it. There was a bit of a dyke running up the side of the road only about a foot deep, and not much more than a foot wide. After running a short distance I threw myself headlong into the dyke and laid there for a few minutes not knowing what to do next. I intended escaping capture, or being hit, if I could help it, so whilst lying down I undid my belt and threw everything off, knowing quite well it was easy enough to get some more. You could always pick up dead men’s equipment and rifles anywhere about there.
After throwing them off I crawled on my stomach for about 150 yards to a farmhouse which was on the other side of the road, so I had to get up and chance it again. Making a mad dash, I managed it without being hit, although the firing was proceeding fast.
On reaching the house there happened to be two more of our fellows there who also had a run for it. While there I saw just across the field on our right about 100 yards away, an officer of the Black Watch and nine men come from behind a haystack and extend out from each other. They had just nicely got extended out when every man dropped, there were five killed. Three of the others managed to crawl back, but the other man and the officer had to lie there. It was a queer thing the officer had only gone out the day before.
The next on the scene while I was standing there was one of the Black Watch coming round the corner of the house against which I was standing, he was dragging a box of ammunition. He came to me and asked me if I would give him a hand to carry it across a field to where his battalion was entrenched. I said, ‘Don’t be foolish man, you had better wait until the firing ceases a bit’. I asked him if he had just carried it himself, he said, ‘No’. His chum who had been helping him had just dropped on the other side of the house, he was right, he had been shot down. Well, he begged me to help him across with it, so I got hold of one side and he the other, and we ran for all we were worth across the same field where the nine men had been knocked down. I was lucky again, I don’t know how I escaped being hit. I seemed that I didn’t care much whether I was hit or not. After landing at the trench I managed to get a complete equipment with rifle and bayonet which one of the Black Watch had done with.
I then went to seek our companies, I found about half a dozen left of my company. One of our sergeants was shot through both legs. I got hold of him and helped him across the field to the farmhouse risking my life again. It was then beginning to get dark and we all had to retire further back to keep up another position."
John E. Hartland is remembered in Hartlepool on H115.09, H115.16 and H115.20 and in the List of 1914-18 Casualties
