HAYES, JOHN ("DAN")

 

Photograph with kind permission of the Uttoxeter Advertiser

 

Sources:

CWGC

SDGW

Uttoxeter Advertiser

Other

Parents

Mrs. Ada Hayes

Yes

 

 

 

Where born

Uttoxeter

 

Yes

 

7

When born

About 1895

 

 

 

5

Address

Mother: 9, Shaws Yard, Carter Street, Uttoxeter

Yes

 

 

 

Carter Street

 

 

1c

 

Spouse

 

 

 

 

 

Children

 

 

 

 

 

Employment Before Joining up

 

 

 

 

 

Where enlisted

Uttoxeter

 

Yes

 

7

Regiment

North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)

Yes

Yes

1a

3, 8

Unit

1st/6th Bn.

Yes

Yes

 

 

1/6TH (T.F.) Bn

 

 

 

7

‘B’ Company

 

 

 

8

Rank

Private

Yes

Yes

1a, 1c, 1d

3, 8

Service Number

1431

Yes

Yes

 

3, 8

Date of Death

13 October 1915

Yes

Yes

 

3, 8

Age at time of death

19

Yes

 

 

 

About 20

 

 

1c

 

Where Killed or died

France/Flanders

 

Yes

 

 

Loos - Hohenzollern Redoubt

 

 

1c

7

How he died

Missing

 

 

1c

8

Died of wounds

 

 

1b

 

Killed in Action

 

Yes

 

 

Location of Grave or Memorial

Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez - Grave XXVII. L. 1.

Yes

 

 

4

Catholic Church War Memorial, Uttoxeter

 

 

 

4

Awards

1915 Star F/B/B2 Page 141

 

 

 

3

Victory Medal F/104B Page 15

 

 

 

3

British Medal F/104B Page 15

 

 

 

3

His parents were Mrs. Ada Hayes, of 9, Shaws Yard, Carter Street, Uttoxeter, Staffs.

Before the war he was well-known in local football circles, acting as a trainer to the Uttoxeter Junior Football Club as well as playing himself1c.

Dan was one of the first contingent of men to leave Uttoxeter upon outbreak of war. He left on 6th August 19141a, 7 at the age of 191c. This makes him one of the elite band of men known as the Old Contemptibles.

He was a member of the Uttoxeter Territorial Company1a.

His medal card3 tells us that he first served in France on 5th March 1915.

He died at the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

On 27th October 1915 the Uttoxeter Advertiser published a letter written by Private Yates stating that he had seen Dan amongst the wounded after the charge on the Hohenzollern Redoubt1b.

This is not consistent with what was reported in the same newspaper in his obituary1c, which stated that he was one of the men to jump into the German trench after the charge, and it is thought that he died there.

In November 1915 the Uttoxeter Advertiser1d reported the fact that Harry Bloor’s parents were becoming concerned about the fate of Harry. He had gone missing at the Hohenzollern Redoubt. They had received a letter from another of their sons who was also serving in the 6th North Staffordshire Regiment, saying that he had not heard anything of his brother Harry and did not know where he was. He added that if ever he got within reach of a German in the future he would have his own back for wounding his brother and cousin. He also expressed deep regret at the loss of his ‘best chum’ Private ‘Dan’ Hayes.

We do not know which of the Bloor boys this was.

Dan is buried in plot XXVII-L in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez.

The "Cabaret Rouge" was a house on the main road about 1 kilometre south of the village of Souchez, near to the site of the cemetery. It is interesting to note that in May 2000 the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier were

exhumed from this cemetery and given to Canada so that they could be placed within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Ottawa.

 

Dan is commemorated on the war memorial inside the Catholic Church in Balance Street, Uttoxeter