2nd/Lieutenant James Ernest Hartley
2/5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
Killed in Action 26th October 1917, aged 27
Lived at "Oakroyd" Queens Park
Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Commemorated in Burnley Cemetery
Commemorated on Hargreaves Street Wesleyan Chapel Memorial
Burnley Express 3rd November 1917 - 17th November 1917

Burnleys Great War Centenary

Sponsored by: Oliver Hartley

Ernest was born in Azelea Road, Blackburn in December 1889 to Samuel & Ruth Hartley, my great-grandparents. Ernest was the youngest boy of ten children – four boys and six girls. The boys, led by Uncle Bert, established a chain of highly successful Hartley’s the Chemists in 1904 (sold in 1975) and all were qualified pharmacists. Ernest was the only one to have served in the The Great War as the other boys were too old and pharmacists were a “reserved” occupation. Ernest managed the Colne branch of Hartley’s before joining up with the Public Schools Battalion (20 Royal Fusiliers) in 1914 and going to war in 1915. He saw action at High Wood during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and was severely wounded in both legs. Ernest returned to the UK to recover at a hospital in Liverpool after which he qualified as an officer cadet and was commissioned in the Spring of 1917 as 2nd Lieut. in the Loyal North Lancashire regiment. It was while on leave after receiving his promotion that he married Elsie Brown, the daughter of an army officer, on June 5th 1917 at St Mary’s Church, Nelson – my grandfather, Fred, was his best man. The family portrait (enclosed) with Ernest in uniform was taken in June 1917 in the garden of the family home (Oakroyd, 3 Queen’s Park Road, Burnley) Elsie sitting behind his left shoulder, immediately in front of Ruth, Ernest’s mother. The other women are his six sisters and his mother, Ruth. The fellow on the left was Jim Crewdson who married the oldest sister, Lucy. The bespectacled man on the right is Uncle Bert (Albert Edward Hartley). I have also enclosed a photo of Ernest in uniform.

Returning to the front in July as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 5th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, Ernest was killed at Passchendaele on 26th October 1917. Hit by an incoming shell, he was blown to pieces and like so many, there was nothing recoverable to bury, so his name is inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium along with so many other poor souls lost in that horrific war. There is also a memorial stone in Burnley Cemetery at the grave of his parents and his uncle Jim and Jim’s wife Alice. I had the grave restored last year. Elsie, his widow, happily re-married to Arthur Davies in 1921 and had a son, Peter. Elsie died in 1967. I believe that Peter died in 2004 and am not sure if he married & had children.

(Courtesy of his Great Nephew Oliver Hartley)

Taken on the steps of "Oakroyd" 3 Queen's Park Road in the Summer of 1917. The Hartley
family, with youngest son Ernest (James) on leave, having just married. He was killed at
Passchandaele a few months later. Uncle Bert (bottom right) was co-founder of Hartleys
chemist. The family lived there for around 60 years.