Laidlaw, George (see Ledlie, George)
Private
No. S/20127, 5th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders
Killed in action on Tuesday 18 July 1916 (aged 25)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval Memorial, France (Pier and Face 15 B)
Ballyhalbert Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Andrew’s) at Ballyeasborough
Family grave headstone in the adjoining graveyard
BIOGRAPHY
In some records, his surname is spelt Ledlie (1901 and 1911 census records) and in others Leadlie or Ledley (some General Register Office Northern Ireland – GRONI – records).
George Ledlie (or Laidlaw) was born on 20 May 1891 in Ballyeasborough and he was a son of William and Margaret (Maggie) Ledlie (nee Boyd) who were married on 30 June 1876.
The Ledlie family lived in the townlands of Balligan, Kircubbin and Ballyeasborough, Ballyhalbert.
William Ledlie worked as an agricultural labourer and he and Maggie had at least ten children:
Jane (born 9 April 1878 in Balligan)
Ellen (born 4 June 1880 in Balligan)
William James (born 29 August 1882 in Ballyeasborough)
Robert (born 5 May 1886 in Ballyeasborough)
Joseph (born 20 December 1888 in Ballyeasborough)
George (born 20 May 1891 in Ballyeasborough)
David (born 3 January 1894 in Ballyeasborough)
Thomas (born 26 April 1897 in Ballyeasborough)
John (born 21 May 1900 in Ballyeasborough)
Agnes (born 7 January 1906 in Ballyeasborough, some ten weeks after her father died)
William Ledlie Senior died of heart disease on 27 October 1905 (aged 50) and, after he died, Maggie worked as a charwoman.
George Laidlaw enlisted in Glasgow, he served with the Cameron Highlanders and was killed in action on 18 July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.
His family placed a Killed in Action notice in the 26 August 1916 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle and, one year after Private George Laidlaw died, his sister and brother-in-law Nellie and William Palmer from Ballyeasborough placed an Our Heroes – In Memoriam notice which contained the verse:
Sleep on, dear brother, in your foreign grave,
A grave we may never see;
But as long as life and memory last
We will remember thee.
Each of these newspaper insertions used the surname Laidlaw.
Corporal George Ledlie, Royal Irish Rifles, is commemorated on the Memorial Plaque in Ballyhalbert Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Andrew’s) at Ballyeasborough and also on the family grave headstone in the adjoining graveyard.
Erected by Maggie Ledlie
Of Ballyeasboro in memory of her husband
William Ledlie who died 27th October 1905
Aged 50 years
Son John Ledlie died 10 Oct 1909
Aged 8 years
Also her son George killed in France 18th July 1916
Aged 25 years
Also the above Margaret Ledlie
Who died 8th Nov 1920 aged 63 years