Harry Loftus Barlow

Hal Barlow was born in Bath on 10 Apr 1888, the son of an army officer. He attended Shrewsbury School, from 1903 to 1905, and was a good friend of both Wilmot Evans and Noel Downing.

The family of Hal’s mother, Mabel Barlow (née Moore) lived in Hagley House a few houses down from The Lawn and Elm Lodge in Hagley, where the Evans and Downing families were all neighbours.

Three postcards from Hal Barlow to Noel Downing have survived – these are all written in August 1914 at the outbreak of war. All three are addressed to W. N. Downing, Esq, Elm Lodge, Hagley.

Biplane B.E. Type. Outside Hangars, Farnborough. Photo by F. Scovell & Co, 18 Queens Rd, Aldershot. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 16 Aug 1914

Biplane B.E. Type. Outside Hangars, Farnborough. Photo by F. Scovell & Co, 18 Queens Rd, Aldershot. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 16 Aug 1914

Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 16 Aug 1914

Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 16 Aug 1914

Postmark 16 Aug 1914, Aldershot

Saturday Even:

Here I am at Aldershot having spent since last Tuesday night at Farnboro’. It is quite an ordinary occurrence to see 4 or 5 of the machines on other side flying at once. It has been awfully hot, but we have had rain today. I am attached to the Royal Engineers Signal A Co. We are expecting to go abroad soon. Heaps of regiments have already left. I am a Corporal in the Motor Cyclists. Remember me to all. See you again some day. Yrs Hal Barlow.

And again two follow on cards sent together

Royal Field Artillery. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 22 Aug 1914

Royal Field Artillery. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 22 Aug 1914

Postmark 22 Aug 1914, Aldershot

Thanks so much for your letter and many congratters on being enrolled as a Constable. Have they given you any stripes yet! I expect by now you will have had a case – I should think friend W will be very easy prey so mind you catch him!! Forgive me writing a letter but I’ve hardly a minute today. I don’t think you would care for this job its awfully stiff and one has to rise at 5 a.m. The grub of course is not A1 and I notice…

South Camp P.O. & St George's Church, Aldershot. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 22 Aug 1914

South Camp P.O. & St George’s Church, Aldershot. Hal Barlow to Noel Downing postcard, Aldershot, 22 Aug 1914

Postmark 22 Aug 1914, Aldershot

…the change very much indeed, but one has to get used to it. I wonder if you’ll have a chance of going abroad – I am going for certain. And I hear our work is very risky indeed – that sounds pleasant doesn’t it? We are having topping weather although it rained this afternoon. I hear the motor cyclists corps is full up but I was wired on Monday week last so here I am. Please remember me to your people in Hagley. I’ll do my best to write you a letter. Yrs Hal


Hal Barlow is also mentioned in one of Wilmot Evans’s letters in Feb 1915, where he describes how Hal turns up behind the front line on his motor bike.

In the early days of the war Hal appears nothing but enthusiastic. As part of the general mobilisation, volunteer Despatch Riders  had been called up as early as 25 Jul 1914. They needed to provide their own machine. This was recognised as one of the quickest ways for a young man to see action and was preferred to training as an officer, which carried the perceived risk that the war would be over before the training could be completed.

Hal spent eighteen months in France in the Motor Cyclist Corps before gaining a commission in the Royal Engineers Signals and and then joining the Royal Flying Corps on 28 Nov 1916. Still apparently a trainee, his Sopwith Camel (B7476) aircraft stalled over Dover on 18 Mar 1918 and he was killed. The picture he sent Noel of the aircraft and the obvious enthusiasm recounted at seeing them at Farnborough in Aug 1914 is all the more poignant.

Sources and Notes

  • JE Auden: Shrewsbury School Register, 1734-1908, Oswestry, Woodall 1909
  • The London Gazette:
    19 May 1916, Supplement 29590, Page 5052
    19 Dec 1916, Issue 29870, Page 12344
    20 Jul 1917, Supplement 30193, Page 7413
  • Divorce petition of Mabel Barlow against her husband Capt Harry Barlow of the South Staffordshires, filed 30 Aug 1901 (ancestry.co.uk)
  • Self evidently from these Postcards, it would appear that Noel Downing had signed up as a Reserve Constable at the outbreak of war – before, a month later, enlisting in the army in Sep 1914  with the 4th P.S. Battalion. Noel was to serve in the Reserve Constabulary both in 1926 (General Strike) and again in the Second World War.
  • The 1901 Census shows Mabel Barlow living in Hagley House with her parents at the start of her divorce proceedings. Up the road is Florence Evans, mother to Wilmot, who was familiar with the unpleasantness of a Divorce petition as she had helped her sister Nettie go through the same in 1898,  three years earlier.
  • W. H. L. Watson. Adventures of a Motorcycle Despatch Rider During the First World War:  William Blackwood and Sons, London, 1915