Monday 22 March 2010

Raymond Nolan: An Officer In The Black Watch.

1914 Star. Lieutenant R. P. D. Nolan, Royal Highlanders.
Raymond Philip Drummond Nolan, the eldest son of Mr Philip Nolan of the Indian Civil Service, was born on 1st July 1883 in India. As a boy of 12, he accompanied his father on a tiger shoot and succeeded in killing a full-grown tiger with his miniature rifle, a unique exploit that was recorded in several well-known works on Indian big game shooting. Raymond was educated at Beaumont, Stoneyhurst (the 1901 Census records him as a 17 year old boarder there) and New College, Oxford, where he got his double half-blue, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1908. He joined the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) in May 1907, and in April 1910 was promoted to Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion. In 1912, he succeeded his uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Nolan, MP, in the Balinderry Estate in County Galway and, on 27th November the following year, married Kathleen O'Connor, the eldest daughter of Mr C. A. O'Connor, Master of the Rolls in Ireland. A son was born to them on 7th September 1914.
Just 10 days after the birth of his son, Raymond left for France, where he joined the 1st Black Watch. The Battalion had spent September fighting on the Marne and had lost eight officers and 48 other ranks, either killed in action or died of wounds. In the middle of October, they moved up to the Ypres Salient. In the next two weeks, seven more officers and 100 other ranks were killed attempting to advance or repel the frequent German attacks.
On November 2nd, the Germans attacked down the Menin road towards Ypres. The 1st Black Watch was called upon to halt the enemy advance. It was here that Lieutenant Nolan gave his life for his country. To quote from the Regimental History: "On the 2nd the British line on the Menin road was again broken. The Battalion played a very considerable part in restoring the line by a brilliant counter-attack, in which A Company under Captain V. M. Fortune, B Company under Lieutenant J. L. Rennie and C Company under Captain H. Amery took part. These companies, which thus stopped the forward German movement on the Menin road and helped to fill the gap, were only 120 strong and were reduced to 75 in the course of the attack. Lieutenant Nolan was killed, Captain Amery so severely wounded that he died some months afterwards, and Lieutenant Rennie was also wounded." (Captain Amery was a long-serving officer who had served in Egypt from 1901 to 1911. He was fluent in Arabic, Persian and German and in 1906 had been appointed Assistant Director of Intelligence at Cairo. He died back in England and is buried in Kensal Green All Souls' Cemetery.) A letter written by one of Raymond Nolan's brother officers is quoted in the Stoneyhurst War Record: "Two companies of the Black Watch were ordered to counter-attack as the Germans had broken through on the right of the Brigade, and had apparently occupied some houses in the village of Veldhoek, about three miles east of Ypres. The attack was eventually made by two platoons of 'A' Company and 'C' Company.
"They got within about 150 yards of the houses, but could get no further owing to machine gun and rifle fire. The German advance was, however, also stopped. In trying to make a further advance, the Captain of 'C' Company - Capt. Amery - was hit in three places, and Lieut. Nolan in five places, by machine gun fire. He was killed instantaneously. After dark he was brought in and buried near the Dressing Station, which was a farm on the road running N. and S. just west of the village of Veldhoek, and the spot is marked with a cross with his name upon it. "His loss was deeply regretted by all of us, as he had proved himself a capable leader, and we were all very fond of him."
In the ensuing years, the ravages of war succeeded in obliterating the location of Lieutenant Nolan's grave and he is now commemorated on the Menin Gate, his name alongside those of so many of his fellow officers and men who died fighting in the Ypres Salient.

4 comments:

  1. Nice blog and thanks for the link to my Army Service Numbers blog. Are these your medals?

    Incidentally, the link to the AGS and NGS medal rolls appears to be broken.

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  2. Thanks for the comments Paul.
    All the medals are from my own collection.

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  3. Hello,

    It’s been quite a while since this most interesting blog was written up but I see with interest that Nolan’s Coy commander was mentioned. Major Amery as he became died several months later as you mentioned in England. He was the brother of Leo Amery MP who later was in Churchill’s cabinet in 1940. I own his broadsword that he fell with at Menin. There is a slight error on the net about Major Amery being in the Sudan campaign of 1898. He didn’t get out to Egypt and the Sudan until 1902 so I don’t where this error crept in.
    Very interesting men.
    RIP

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    1. Thank you for your interesting comment. I can't remember my exact source for Amery's service in the Sudan campaign but there are many references to it on the internet. However, I checked some newspaper articles from the time of his death in 1915 and these just refer to service in Egypt from May 1901 to May 1911. Therefore I have amended the post.

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