Colonel Laurie’s father, General J.W. Laurie, C.B.,[13] served with great distinction in the Crimea, where he was twice wounded; in the Indian Mutiny, and in the Transvaal. He was Honorary Colonel of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and, having sat for some years in the Canadian House of Commons, was from 1895 till 1906 Unionist Member in the Imperial Parliament for the Pembroke Burghs, and a prime favourite with all sorts and conditions of men in the House of Commons. Colonel Laurie’s elder brother, Captain Haliburton Laurie, who was one of the most deservedly loved men of his generation, fell in the Boer War in 1901. If he had not been a great soldier, Colonel Laurie would have been a great historian. His knowledge of history, more especially of military history, was profound, and his memory was singularly retentive. He had, moreover, a very sound judgment in the marshalling of facts. He had written with a pen of light the history of his regiment, which he loved, and which loved him, and on which in life and in death he had shed additional lustre.
Yours, etc.,
J.G. Swift MacNeill.
Dublin, March 20th, 1915.
(From the “Irish Telegraph,” March 20th, 1915.)
R.I. RIFLES ENGAGED.
Lieut.-Colonel Laurie Killed.
Other Regimental Losses.
Information reached Belfast yesterday that Lieutenant-Colonel George Brenton Laurie, commanding the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was killed in action, near Neuve Chapelle, last Sunday. The deceased officer was exceedingly well known in Belfast, where he commanded the Rifles Depot for three years, and the news of his demise has been received with sorrow at Victoria Barracks. He was closely connected by marriage with the North of Ireland.
Lieutenant-Colonel George Brenton Laurie, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, who has died a soldier’s death at the head of the gallant 83rd, will long be remembered by the old corps, in which he spent thirty years. He was the author of the splendid “History of the Royal Irish Rifles” which was issued last year, and dedicated by him to the regiment on the 125th anniversary of the raising of the 83rd and 86th Foot, now the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Rifles. He considered the writing of that history, which runs into 540 pages, a fitting close to his career in the regiment, but he remained on in the Service, and the unexpected European War has made it otherwise, and now he has ended his career on the field of battle. The closing words of his preface were:—
“May the officers and men of the Royal Irish Rifles win yet more laurels for their regiment by their staunchness whenever their Sovereign calls for their services in war!”
When Colonel Laurie penned those words last spring, he little dreamt that within a few short months the officers and men of both the 83rd and 86th would be shedding their life’s blood freely in France, and now he himself has made the supreme sacrifice, and with Captains Master, Reynolds, Davis, Kennedy, Stevens, Allgood, Whelan, Miles, Biscoe, Lieutenants Rea, Whitfield, Burges, and Tyndall, Second-Lieutenants Magenis, Davy, Gilmore, Swaine, and Eldred—many of them his old comrades—sleeps his last long sleep in a foreign grave.
The son of a soldier (the late General Laurie), Colonel Laurie received his first commission in the Rifles in September, 1885, and joined the 2nd Battalion, then quartered at Halifax, the last station occupied by British infantry in Canada, and it is interesting to recall that he was the last officer to join the battalion with the rank of Lieutenant, as an Army Order issued some time later directed subalterns to begin service as Second-Lieutenants. Halifax, Colonel Laurie tells us in his history of the regiment, was a delightful station, and all were sorry to leave it, the men especially so, and over 300 of them gave in their names as married without leave. Lieutenant Laurie moved with the battalion to Gibraltar in November, 1886, and to Egypt in January, 1888. In 1889 Lieutenant Laurie went up the Nile with the battalion, which was detained at Assouan so long that it missed the fight at Toski. He afterwards served at Malta and in various home stations, and did not again see active service until 1901, when he was sent from England as a special service officer for mounted infantry work, and took command of No. 2 Mounted Infantry Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifles.
In the action at Hartbeestefontein he had a narrow escape, riding some 300 yards in front of his company in a charge, with one corporal. They were surprised from a house at 25 yards range, and the corporal saved his life by shooting a man in the act of aiming at his officer.
He distinguished himself in the action at Klerksdorp and in the pursuit of Niewhoudt’s commando, and on February 26th, 1902, was ordered to Pretoria to take command of the 28th Battalion Mounted Infantry, handing over his company to Lieutenant Low, who was killed a fortnight later. Captain Laurie was highly commended by Colonel Rochfort for his services with the Rifles Mounted Infantry in these words:—
“During the whole of my time in South Africa I did not command better or more mobile troops than the two mounted infantry companies of the Royal Irish Rifles under Captain Laurie and Captain Baker.”
For his services in the war Captain Laurie was mentioned in despatches, and received the Queen’s medal with clasps. A step in rank came in 1904, and in 1911 Major Laurie had the honour of commanding the detachment of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles which was sent from Dover to London to attend the Coronation of King George. On October 28th, 1912, Major Laurie was promoted to the command of the 1st Battalion, then at Kamptee, Lieutenant-Colonel O’Leary’s term having expired. He brought the regiment from India to Aden, and last October it was moved to England prior to going to France in the following month.