In Memory of

Sergeant John Hayes

300283
18th Bn., The King’s (Liverpool Regiment)
Killed in Action 6th October 1917 Age 28

Sergeant John Hayes lived with his wife Jessie and their infant child at 17, Bradleigh Road, Wargrave, Newton-le-Willows. He was working at the Clock Face Colliery when war broke out, and along with other members of the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry (number 25004) he offered his services. He was transferred to the 18th King’s Liverpool Regiment.

John’s obituary published in the NEG on October 26th 1917 prints a letter from his Commanding Officer, Captain John S. Edwards, who stated that John “was killed instantaneously while on outpost duty in the front line. As an old Lancashire Hussar myself, I have known him for a long time – since the first days at Canterbury, in fact… We buried him last night in a quiet spot some distance behind the lines with some of his colleagues who also fell with him.”

The ‘quiet spot’ does not seem to have remained quiet as his grave appears to have been destroyed by subsequent fighting and shelling as John’s name is on the Tyne Cot Memorial which commemorates nearly 35,000 officers and men who died in the Ypres Salient after August 15th 1917 and who have no known grave.

A Private James Hayes (634455) of the 20th (County of London) Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich) London Regiment was born in Leigh and, according to SDGW, was resident in Lowton. However, he enlisted in Grove Park, London. He was killed in action on 7th November 1917.