8/1258 Lieutenant Thomas Dalwood Hartley, 25/3/1889-28/1/1918.

Thomas Hartley grew up in Invercargill and was originally a farmer and a Territorial Officer. He joined the Invercargill City Guards in 1909 and was appointed from Sergeant to 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th (Southland) Regiment (which replaced the Guards under the Territorial System) in April 1913.  He also had 3 months' experience with the Artillery.  He was made full Lieutenant a year later.  He left with his Regiment, part of the Otago Battalion, for the war in February, 1915.

In May of 1915 he was in hospital on the island of Lemnos, wounded at Gallipoli in the left heel and shoulder and suffering from acute bronchitis and also from dysentery, was granted 6 months leave of absence in August and was invalided home.  He was passed fit for duty in October and promoted to Captain in November of 1915.

He returned to the war with the 11th Reinforcements, this time attached to the New Zealand Field Artillery, in April of 1916.  In November of 1916 he is recorded as being promoted from Captain to Major.

SOLDIERS’ LETTERS

BEATING THE HUN. 

NEW ZEALANDERS’ GREAT NAME. 

CAPT. HARTLEY’S IMPRESSIONS. 

Captain T. D. Hartley, son of Mr and Mrs A, Hartley, Elles Road, writing from France under date 3rd October, says: — 

Well I have been in France, four weeks and what sights I have seen in that time. I would not have missed it for a fortune, and that is saying a good deal. Of course reading the papers you will know where our troops have been at this particular time, and once again I am proud to call myself a New Zealander. Our infantry has earned a name second to none on the Western front; they have performed prodigies of valour, and when the time comes for their deeds to be recorded in the pages of history we all know that their work is going to be placed very high, and they have set a standard that is going to take a lot of beating. They met the dastardly Hun time and again; hardly a shot fired, and then they closed, bayonet versus bayonet, and drove him from the field. Thank God the Hun is beaten. It’s only a question of time! Somehow I think another 12 months will go very near to finishing the struggle, and I won’t be sorry either, but while this struggle is on I am going to endeavour to stick to the end. 

As to the artillery, I feel certain that the greatest cannonades the world has ever heard of have taken place here. It is indescribable. It is appalling. We all know what the Hun sends over to us in the way of gun fire, but what must the Hun be enduring in the midst of our terrible cannonade. It must be living hell for those who come through it. I have seen prisoners come down dazed, with eyes protruding, with the hunted stare of the wild beast which is being thrashed to death. 

They have had their fill, the hounds that introduced gas in warfare: the slayers of women and children; beasts who have performed some of the most diabolical outrages, yes lower than the untutored savage, a thousand times lower. But now his moral is beginning to go; terror has seized his heart; he won’t face our troops as he did twelve months ago! He gives himself up more readily, he knows that for him the future is full of dread, unimaginable horrors, and deep down in the chambers of his heart be dreads this terrible offensive of ours. He knows it’s going to lead to the Rhine, and then revenge, revenge. Oh Germany! what terrors you face, and are going to experience! 

France! France! oh beautiful France! What have these people had to endure? Outrages, of every kind and description. I quite understand the maddening desire the French soldiers possess to get on the Huns’ soil. This fair country is a mass of trenches, craters, dug-outs, shell holes, trees stripped of all foliage, villages pummelled to pieces, not one brick on top of another. The scene of desolation, yet the scene of glorious deeds. 

I am quite convinced that it is we who are going to win this war. I thought once it would be Russia. I now see clearly it’s going to be Great Britain. The more I think of this struggle the more. I understand the Huns’ terrible hate of our Empire. Yet it was he in the first place that realised who had upset his little box of tricks. To my mind the Hun would have beaten Russia and France, but the entry of the British Empire into this struggle upset his plans completely and we can all see most clearly is going to lead to his doom despite the twaddle of Bethmann-Hollweg.  -Southland Times, 16/12/1916.

Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin

In the winter of 1917-18 the New Zealand Division were stationed in the Ypres Salient.  The collapse of Russia and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Germans was ominous news and a defensive strategy was prepared so there was much work to do in the cold and wet of Flanders.  This work was sporadically disrupted by German shelling.

For the Field Artillery, January was mostly occupied in what was described as "harassing fire," disrupting preparations for an enemy assault as much as possible and, on the 22nd, stopping a German raid on British trenches.  It was during this period that Thomas Hartley died, killed in action.

THE LATE LIEUT. T. D. HARTLEY

The parents of the late Lieut. T. D. Hartley, who was killed on January 20th of this year on the Western front, have lately received from the brother-officers of their son an account of the circumstances surrounding his lamented death. It appears that in the course of his duty he had ascended an observation post to obtain objectives for his battery and, on his return, was shot through the lungs by a German sniper. His men conveyed him at once to the nearest dressing-station, and although he assured those about him that he was ‘‘all right," he died almost immediately. Next day he was buried in the cemetery at Dickebusch, near Ypres, where many others of our gallant soldiers also lie. Among those who wrote appreciative and consolatory letters were his superiors in command, his brother-officers, and the chaplain who read the burial service over him. The letters, having been written under the regulations prescribed by the Censorship, do not contain any items of public interest, but serve to show the thoughtful and kindly care which is taken to give to the sorrowing relatives of the fallen such particulars as they will like to be informed of, and also information concerning the disposal of the personal effects of the deceased. The writers all bear testimony to the high character of the fallen soldier, and of the esteem in which he was held by his superiors, his brother-officers and the men under his command.  -Southland Times, 8/5/1918.

FOR THE EMPIRE’S CAUSE.

IN MEMORIAM. 

HARTLEY. — In loving memory of our dear son, Lieut. T. D. Hartley, who fell in action near Ypres, on January 29, 1918. “He nobly did his duty.” Inserted by his father and mother.  -Southland Times, 29/1/1919.