Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookhat memorable day. 'Whit Monday,' for about 10½ hours, at about 500 yds. from the Germans, without a British soldier in front and about 1,000 yds. from the nearest troops behind, attending to the wounded. First, I set away with a stretcher, my companion was either shot or fainted, so I went across to the ruins of an old cottage. There were a dozen or so wounded, with a wounded Corporal trying to dress the other poor souls. I could get no assistance there, so had to go to our reserves behind for someone to help me to get the stretcher in. I returned with two brave chaps, and on my return met Lieut. Haythornthwaite. He asked particulars and said it was certain death to venture out. I said, 'I'm risking it.' His answer was, 'If you go, I'm coming also.' The four of us set out, but could not find man or stretcher, and it was only by the protection of God Himself that we returned, for nothing human could have protected us from the murderous fire the brutes sent towards us, but not one of us was hit, thanks to God. It was after that I found the qualities of your son. The dressings of the wounded were not as they should have been, bandaged by little experienced hands, so your son and myself set about to try to stop the bleeding of the wounded.... After a while we got all made as comfortable as we could under the circumstances.... So he set to, and got a fire going, and we got some Bovril made. It was a God-send for the poor souls, as the water was not fit to drink if it had not been boiled, and the continual cry of the wounded was 'water.' It was during the time the water was boiling I saw your son sitting and writing the letter you eventually got, but the contents he did not mention at the time. After a while, the counter-attack started. Our troops started to advance. What a sight! Men falling right and left, but still the advance continued until they reached our cottage. Your son collected men on one side of the cottage, myself the other, and got them to dig themselves in so as to stop the brutes from advancing, and after a while we got a position formed which seemed strong enough to hold them in check. And then came more work, the poor souls who had been shot were either helped, or carried to us for 'First Aid,' and on several occasions your son and myself went out and brought men in, and it was on one of these that he got hit, the bullet passing through his left shoulder. I was dressing a chap with a finger blown off when it happened, but two men--I don't know their names--carried him in, and set about dressing him. He called for me, and asked me to adjust his bandages, and said, 'If there are any men about doing nothing tell them to try and get a rifle as every man is needed.'.... He was hit somewhere about 5 p.m., and after he was wounded he was as calm and cool as ever. He ordered a man--I don't know his name--to take everything from his pockets, spectacles included, with the instructions, 'See these things handed over to my people.' The man repeated the words as he gave me the things I forwarded on to you." Private James White, Royal Fusiliers, who brought him into the ruined cottage after he was wounded, in an interview with Lieut. Haythornthwaite's father said that shortly after 4 p.m. the British counter attack began in great force. The Northumbrian Brigade led the attack, and one platoon as it drew near to the ruined cottage in one of its rushes, was left without its officer. He fell wounded and was brought in and laid with the others. Lieut. Haythornthwaite then said to him "Shall I take your men on?" He went forth to do so, and was almost immediately shot himself, and was left on the field until brought in by Private James White. This account is not inconsistent with that given by Sergt-Major Dunlop, as he admits that he did not actually see him fall, as he was busily engaged with the wounded. Lieut. Haythornthwaite was a keen athlete and long-distance runner at Haileybury. He won the half mile, under 16, in 1910, and the open mile in 1912. He also won his College Colours at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge, for athletics and football, and organised the Regimental Sports whilst in training at Dover. [Illustration: =R. M. Haythornthwaite.=] =HAYWARD, ARTHUR CHARLES=, Private, No. 51231, 16th Battn. (Canadian Scottish), Canadian Expeditionary Force, _s._ of Richard William Hayward, of The Mount, Hooe, Battle, co. Sussex, Mercantile Clerk, by his first wife, Susannah, dau. of Joseph Bleak; _b._ The Mount, Hooe, 29 Oct. 1882; educ. Castle Gate School, Lewes; and went to Canada in 1904. He had always had a strong desire for a military career, and had been a member of a voluntary corps both in England and Canada. On the outbreak of the European War he threw up his post of ranch manager in California, proceeding to Victoria, B.C., where he enlisted with the Victoria Fusiliers, and was one of a draft from that regt. despatched to England to reinforce Princess Patricia's L.I., but on arrival on Salisbury Plain was attached to the 16th Battn. Canadian Scottish. He took part in their historic action in the wood near Ypres for recovery of the French guns on the night of 22-23 April, 1915, receiving his mortal wound immediately after that action, in which he had borne a gallant part. He was buried in the new military cemetery at Poperinghe; _unm._ [Illustration: =Arthur Charles Hayward.=] =HAYWARD, HARRY=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 6706), 220756, H.M.S. Hogue; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =HAYWARD, THOMAS ALEXANDER=, A.B., S.S. 3057, H.M.S. Aboukir; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =HAZEL, JOHN THOMAS=, Private, No. 12019, 5th Battn. Canadian Expeditionary Force, eldest _s._ of the late William Hazel, of 40, Sutherland Street, Middlesbrough, by his wife, Mary Eliza (43, Lloyd Street, Middlesbrough), dau. of James Hutchinson, of Whitby; _b._ Middlesbrough, 13 Jan. 1891; educ. Linthorpe Schools there; went to Canada in 1908; and was a Farmer; volunteered after the outbreak of war and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force; came over with the first contingent; went to France in Feb. 1915, and died in No. 11 General Hospital, Boulogne, 26 May, 1915, of wounds received in action; _unm._ [Illustration: =John Thomas Hazel.=] =HAZELDEN, JAMES=, Leading Seaman (R.F.R., B. 4555), 167431, H.M.S. Hawke; lost when that ship was torpedoed in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914; _m._ =HEAD, GEORGE FREDERICK=, Rifleman, No. 1874, 1/18th (London Irish Rifles) Battn. The London Regt. (T.F.), eldest _s._ of George Head, of Vine Cottage, Limpsfield, Surrey, Decorator, by his wife, Annie M., dau. of Walter Miles; _b._ Limpsfield, 17 Dec. 1894; educ. there; was a Draper's Assistant at Sir Frederick Cook's, in St. Paul's Churchyard; volunteered on the declaration of war and joined the London Irish Rifles, 11 Aug. 1914; went to France, 9 March, and was killed in action at Loos, 26 Sept. 1915; _unm._ Buried at Noeux-les-Mines. His officer (to whom he was acting as servant) wr |