Henry Albert Hayman
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Henry Albert Hayman was the son of Henry Albert Hayman and Charlotte Marshall. Henry and Charlotte (b. Derby 1869) were married in Walworth, Surrey, on 9 August 1891 (reg. Southwark registration district). There were at least two sons of the marriage, Henry Albert b. Southwark 1896 and Thomas Charles b. Derby 1900. However, there is also a record of the baptism of an Ann Hayman, the daughter of Henry Albert, a gas fitter, and Charlotte Hayman, of Abbey Street, Derby, who was baptised at Derby Christ Church in June 1898 (birth registered Derby 1898). No other record has yet been traced for this child In the 1901 census Henry Albert junior, his brother, Thomas Charles, and their mother, a tailoress, were staying with her parents, William and Rebecca Marshall, at 42 Queen Street, Derby. There is a record on the 1901 Census of a Henry A Hayman, a married man, aged 43, born in Kennington, Surrey, occupation leadsman, who was a boarder in a house in Lambeth. The same man might have been a pauper residing in an institution in West Ham in 1911. The 1911 census finds Charlotte living with James Gray, a wood turner, at 26 Howden Road, Sheffield. James' first wife had died in 1904 leaving six children, the youngest of whom, Horace, was about 7 years old. James and Charlotte claimed to have been married for four years but their marriage actually took place the following year at Nottingham in 1912. Living with James and Charlotte were his son Horace Sydney (14), her son Thomas Charles (11) and their two daughters Josephine and Dorothy (Josephine Mabel Gray Hayman b. Derby 1908, Dorothy Gray Hayman b. Sheffield 1909). Henry Albert Hyman was not in the household on the night of the census and quite where he was living is unclear. At the time Henry Hyman enlisted he gave his mother’s address as 15 Back Park Street, Derby, and this was also the address given for James Gray when his son Horace was killed in January 1915 (see record on this ROH). The postwar address we have for her was 9 St Peter’s Street, Old Radford [Army records/1919 & CWGC]. James Gray died in May 1921 and Charlotte on 9 August 1941 (reg. Basford) aged 71. Henry's stepbrother, Horace Sydney Gray, also died in the war. (See 'Extra information)
Enlisted at Derby on 5 June 1915; assigned to 3rd Bn. Sherwood Foresters on 15 June 1915 and embarked for France 9 December 1915. He transferred to 10th Bn. Sherwood Foresters on 10 September 1916. Henry Albert suffered a gunshot wound to the right thigh on 31 October 1916 and subsequently sent back to England on 8 November 1916. He remained in England until 27 July 1917 when he returned to France. Presumably it was at this point that he transferred to the 2nd/6th Bn. Sherwood Foresters. Henry Albert was killed in action on 21 March 1918, the first day of the German Spring Offensive. He is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas de Calais, France (grave ref. XX. E. 5). There are 7661 burials in the cemetery, with over 7,000 of those brought in from other burial grounds after the war. It is likely therefore that Henry's grave was one of those brought in to the cemetery after the Armistice. He qualified for the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. CWGC - History of Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery (extract): 'Caberet Rouge" was a small, red-bricked, red-tiled café that stood close to this site in the early days of the First World War. The café was destroyed by shellfire in March 1915 but it gave its unusual name to this sector and to a communication trench that led troops up the front-line. Commonwealth soldiers began burying their fallen comrades here in March 1916. The cemetery was used mostly by the 47th (London) Division and the Canadian Corps until August 1917 and by different fighting units until September 1918. It was greatly enlarged in the years after the war when as many as 7,000 graves were concentrated here from over 100 other cemeteries in the area.' (www.cwgc.org)
Horace Sydney Gray, the son of Charlotte Hayman's second husband, James Gray, served in the Royal Navy and was killed when HMS Formidable was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 1 January 1915. He is also commemorated on Radford St Peter memorial. (See record on this Roll of Honour). CWGC headstone personal inscription: 'He fought the good fight of faith' CWGC: ' Son of Mrs. Charlotte Gray, of 9, St. Peter's St., Old Radford, Nottingham. Born in London.' Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 11 August 1941: ‘Gray. August 9th, Charlotte, widow of James, Funeral Tuesday, from 219 Exchange-road, West Bridgford, Wilford Hill 2.45.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
