Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

other Army units. 16 There was an upper age limit of 45 so, aged 37 when war was declared, Hayes qualified with some ease. There were problems with uniform, because as well as being fitter than average, many of them were taller than average and there were insufficient uniforms for men over six feet. Perhaps this was less of a problem for Hayes than some of his colleagues. One of his obituaries recalls him as a slightly-built man and James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annual recorded his height and weight, albeit as a young man, as 5ft 9in and 10st 5lb. E.G.Hayes is listed as No.347 in the nominal roll of original members who joined either at the Hotel Cecil in the Strand or at Grey Towers, just off the High Street in Hornchurch, Essex, where early training, including the digging of trenches, took place. Ian Peebles’ book on Patsy Hendren says that Hayes, Hitch, Sandham, and Denis and Patsy Hendren were among the earliest volunteers at the old Hotel Cecil. First recruitment took place on 25 September 1914 and the War Office took over the battalion on 1 July 1915. They landed at Boulogne in November 1915, but some members were held back. Hayes, having taken a commission on 24 August 1915 arrived as part of a reinforcement team on 20 May 1916 – in good time for the Battle of the Somme which was to result in a million casualties. The regiment was then at Souchez; it moved to Carency in June, was on the Somme in July and took part in the Battle of Delville Wood, about fifteen miles east of Amiens, the first time the regiment went ‘over the top’ out of the trenches. Casualties were heavy – 60% of those taking part, including 13 of the 18 officers, were wounded or killed – and included the boxer, Jerry Delany. One of the battalion’s officers, Major N.A.Lewis later wrote of this action: ‘One of the Hun officer prisoners remarked that our advance through the wood was the finest thing they ever saw, but that he objected to being captured by civilians.’ In a letter home dated 26 June, Hayes reports two pieces of luck. A week earlier a shell from a big mortar blew out the front of a dug-out in which he and two other officers, one a captain who was wounded in one arm, were sitting having tea. Rescued after forty-five minutes in darkness, Hayes was fortunate to escape with deafness in one ear. In the other instance a piece of shrapnel passed through two pouches and came to rest against his revolver The Golden Age Ends on the Western Front 86 16 The battalion also acquired a reputation for achieving a high morale and maintaining excellent discipline throughout the war; Hayes no doubt contributed to these conditions.