Henry Normand MacLaurin

Brigadier General Henry Normand MacLaurin (31 October 1878 – 27 April 1915) was a barrister and Australian Army Colonel who served in World War I. He was shot dead by a Turkish sniper at Gallipoli on 27 April 1915.

He was subsequently promoted (posthumously) to Brigadier General when all AIF brigade commanders were thus promoted.

Early life

MacLaurin was born on 31 October 1878 in Sydney, Australia. He was the son of Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin, the chancellor of the University of Sydney. He was educated at Blair Lodge School, Polmont, Scotland; Sydney Grammar School; and the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. MacLaurin was later admitted to the bar in New South Wales and became a barrister.

Military career

MacLaurin enlisted in the New South Wales Scottish Rifles while still at university and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1899. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1900, Captain in 1903 and Major in 1908. On 1 July 1913, he took command of the 26th Infantry Regiment.

World War I

On 15 August 1915, MacLaurin was appointed to the First Australian Imperial Force as a full Colonel and given command of the 1st Infantry Brigade.^[1]

MacLaurin was the youngest of the three original brigade commanders of the 1st Division, and more than ten years younger than any of his four battalion commanders. For a brigade major, he was given a British regular officer, Major Irvine of the Royal Engineers.

MacLaurin's brigade was the last to come ashore at Anzac Cove. By this time a crisis was developing and Major General Bridges was ordering units to fill gaps almost as soon as they arrived ashore.

During the afternoon of 27 April 1915, when a Turkish counterattack threatened, Major Irvine collected 200 stray men in Monash Valley and was about to send them forward when the news arrived that the need for them had passed. Irvine went up to Steele's Post, where he observed the positions. He was warned about Turkish snipers, but brushed off the warnings and was quoted as saying "It's my business to be shot at". Soon after he was fatally wounded by a sniper.

Less than ten minutes later, MacLaurin was standing on the slopes of the ridge that now bears his name. Unaware of Irvine's fate, MacLaurin was in the act of warning soldiers to keep under cover when he too was shot dead, from the same point, possibly by the same Turkish sniper.

MacLaurin was buried by his men near where he fell in a grave marked with a simple wooden cross. In 1919, his remains were moved to the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery, on the slopes of Braund's Hill. For his services at Gallipoli he was Mentioned in Despatches. Some weeks after his death, brigade commanders were upgraded from colonels to brigadier generals and MacLaurin was posthumously promoted to brigadier general.

Family

His father was Normand MacLaurin. His eldest brother - his "next of kin" and one of the executors of his will - was Dr. Charles MacLaurin (1872–1925), M.B., B.S., F.R.C.S., a lecturer in medicine at the University of Sydney and the author of Postmortem and other books.^[2] His two younger brothers were H.C.H. MacLaurin and J.B. MacLaurin

Honours and awards

• 1914-15 Star^[3]
• British War Medal^[3]
• Victory Medal^[3] plus Oak Leaves for Mentioned in Despatches^[4]

See also

• List of Australian Generals
• Normand MacLaurin, his father

References

• Ross Mallett, Henry Norman MacLaurin Biography in General Officers of the First AIF, www.unsw.adfa.edu.au^{(This reference contains several errors. See talk page)}
• Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin, Anzac Officers who died at Gallipoli, www.anzacs.org
• "Henry Normand MacLaurin – Discovering Anzacs". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2014.