Name
Harry Hannay
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
King’s Own Scottish Borderers
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Tracing Harry Hannay and establishing an association with Abbots Langley has been difficult.
The Great War Forum website recorded that Harry Hannay was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to Acting Lieutenant on 18th May 1915 whilst serving with the 5th Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB), and was seconded to the Royal Engineers (RE) on 2nd October 1915.
The Great War Forum also noted that Harry served with the 177th and 257th Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers. The 177th Tunnelling Company was based in the Railway Wood area near the Menin Road, at Hooge in the Ypres Salient for two years from November 1915.
The London Gazette reported on 3rd June 1916 that Harry Hannay had been awarded the Military Cross.
Harry Hannay was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in July 1916, serving as a Captain with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, but attached to the Royal Engineers. The Magazine noted that he had been “awarded a Military Cross in the Birthday List of Honours”.
In June 1918 the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine recorded
“Capt H. Hannay MC, RE, was mentioned in dispatches in Sir Douglas Haig’s dispatch of April 7th”.
At some point towards the end of the War he was promoted to Major.
In the Absent Voters Records of Autumn 1918 and Spring 1919 Harry was listed living in the High Street, Abbots Langley. No other association with Abbots Langley or any details of his family background have been identified.
Harry Hannay survived the War.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
