R is for a Remarkable Hacheston Record – Ten Sons Serving the King

 

Welcome to the world of one-place studies! Twenty-six of our members are sharing something in their particular place for this year's A-Z Blogging Challenge. Simon Last's WW1 research for his place of Parham and Hacheston has turned up an extraordinary story of one family's service.

In My Place of Parham and Hacheston whilst carrying out further research into the World War 1 men of the villages, I found a very interesting article in the Framlingham Weekly News newspaper, dated Saturday 12th September 1914, regarding ten sons of Mr and Mrs Edgar HATCHER of Hacheston.

Bearing in mind that the War had only been under way for a few weeks, I was intrigued that these ten HATCHER sons were already serving:

The 1911 census record shows Edgar and Rosina HATCHER living in The Street in Hacheston and Edgar's occupation is shown as an (Estate) Wood Cutter. It shows that they have been married for 36 years and have had twelve children, 10 of who are still living - living with them in 1911 are William Henry aged 15 and Claude James aged 13.

On checking the 1911 census records for other sons many are already stationed in Bury St Edmunds with the Suffolk Regiment or in Southampton with the Navy.

In due course I would like to research each of these HATCHER boys who served in World War 1, but I have firstly looked at any of the ten sons who were injured or who did not return home.

Firstly I have looked for any other newspaper mentions of the HATCHER sons from Hacheston and found the following regarding Charles HATCHER of the Suffolk Regiment who was missing:

I then found mention of a letter sent by the King to the Hacheston Parents' dated 25th March 1914, but from the Framlingham Weekly News dated Saturday 3rd April 1915.

The first son I found to have been killed in action was Private Bruce Raymond HATCHER 15417 of 8th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment, who died on 26th September 1916 aged 31:

Another son Private Frederick HATCHER 7761 of the 12th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, died on 21st March 1918 aged 27.

I then found a newspaper article that reports Charles HATCHER had arrived home safely after being held as a Prisoner of War in Germany:

I then wanted to see if there were any more HATCHER names on the Hacheston War Memorial and found the following article about the dedication on Sunday 21st September 1919 that names Bruce HATCHER, Fred HATCHER and William HATCHER:

Therefore this Hacheston family who had had ten sons serving on 12th September 1914 paid the ultimate sacrifice in losing three of them and I will now spend more time researching their stories and also those of their siblings who survived and came home.