A DESIRABLE QUEEN'S & KING'S SOUTH AFRICA Group of Five.
With Early (Race to The Sea) Casualty 1914 Star & Bar trio.
Boer War Pair To:
4177 Pte H. HAYLOCK Bedford Rgt.
Later:
KILLED IN ACTION 22nd NOVEMBER 1914 at PLOEGSTEERT
(Last day of 1st Battle of Ypres in Snow Blizzard conditions)
As:
Pte 7573 Pte H. HAYLOCK 2nd Essex Regt.
Born in Ely & Resided in Bishop's Stortford.

An excellent "Old Contemptible's" Boer War & WW1 early "Ploegsteert" casualty group of five.

[BOIGRAPHY]
Harry HAYLOCK was born in 1883 at Ely, Cambridgeshire. After initial service with the Bedford Regiment in South Africa during the Boer War he is seen listed on the QSA roll as being "discharged by purchase 18th August 1902". By the time of his enlistment for WW1 he was a married man. Mrs Minnie B Haylock claimed his clasp in 1919 and was resident in the matrimonial home at 18 Dunmow Road, Hockerill, Bishop's Stortford. He is shown in the 1911 census as a 28 year old gardener living at the same address. Based on his new 2/Essex Regt army service number of 7573, Harry Haylock appears to have re-joined the army reserve in March-April 1903.

[TO FRANCE]
At the start of WW1 the first body of the regular men of 2/Essex Regt arrived in France at Le Havre on 28th August 1914, and Harry, assuming his reservist status, and having joined his unit around 5th August, eventually arrived with what was probably the reservists & reinforcement draft two weeks later on 14th September (MIC confirms). Many of the original 28th August men had been lost in the early actions of the war including: The Battle of Le Cateau, The Retreat from Mons and The Battle of the Marne.

Harry's arrival in France on 14th September, aged 31, was just in time for the The Battle of the Aisne which commenced on 28th September, and he later fought in The First Battle of Messiness, 12th October - 2nd November 1914.

[THE TRENCHES AT PLOEGSTEERT]
The regimental diaries for November 1914 record that the front line trench positions occupied by 2/Essex near Ploegsteert in Belgium were in a shocking state of repair having been greatly affected by torrential rain in the late autumn and by 19th November the battalion was holding a line of freezing cold British front line trenches between Le Gheer and the River Warnave.

Along with the continued and terrible weather the positions had been constantly shelled by German heavy artillery to the point where the water level in some stretches of our lines was at waist depth. There had been several severe trench collapses and dug outs had caved in burying men alive with some men rescued and others lost. It then started to freeze which although somewhat improving the waterlogged conditions led to many men suffering from trench foot & frostbite.

Harry was killed in action on 22nd November 1914. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium. Panel 7. He is also commemorated on the Bishops Stortford war memorial.

[DESERTION IN THE RANKS & EXECUTION]
Against this backdrop of most horrendous weather and the frightening conditions of constant enemy shelling there was a sad development on 19th November 1914. One of 2nd Essex men, 8278 Pte Archibald Browne, who would probably have been well known to Harry Haylock, had deserted during the battle in which Harry himself was killed.There had been snow blizzard conditions setting into the area on the afternoon of 19th November and Archie Browne claimed that he had been ordered to help a wounded man back to a dressing station, and this order was confirmed by another soldier who spoke for Browne prior to his court marshall .
However, damning evidence was heard from the French civil police who had described him as being intercepted several days later coming from the direction of the German lines and had described him as being found "wearing stolen civilian clothes" which he had obtained by rifling through draws & cupboards in a deserted house in Hazebrouck into which he had forced an entry by breaking a rear window. His .303 rifle, army uniform and soldiers' kit were found in the house when the absent owner returned.

The field court marshal found Browne guilty of desertion and he was duly executed by firing squad at 7:00am on 19th December 1914. Browne was only the fourth British soldier from an eventual total of 351 men to be executed during the Great War. He was the last of the four men to be executed in 1914 and the name of Pte A.BROWNE appears on the very same tablet at the Ploegsteert memorial as Pte H. HAYLOCK













An early classic, and very interesting "Old Contemptible's" casualty group to a man with service in two wars and with two leading regiments. Sadly killed in action with 2/Essex Regt in the early weeks of the war. A greatly desirable item. Boer War pair is GVF with suspender claws neatly and professionally tightened, WW1 trio is totally gem mint state with original clasp and ribbons. With copy MIC & CWG papers.

£1250 . Part Exchanges Welcome.