Albert Charles Hayett: Friday 22nd May 1916

Albert enlisted in Wandsworth and became Sapper 87070 in the Royal Engineers 204 Field Company.  It was likely he was not a tall man as the Division was largely made up of men who did not meet the general height requirement. He was killed in action aged 20 and is buried at St Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richbourg-L’Avoue, just east of Betune in Northern France, another casualty of the Somme.  Albert also appears on a list of names missing but possibly should have been included on the Whitstable War Memorial.

Albert was born in Chester but appears to have grown up in Winchester.  He is also commemorated on the Trinity Road Chapel Memorial as A E Hayett and so was probably a TRC member.  His father, John Charles, had been a prison warder at Winchester prison (1901 census) and transferred to Wandsworth Prison by the 1911 census where the family home was 58 Prison Quarters.  In 1901 Albert was the youngest of five children; Jessie, aged 12, William, aged 10, Winifred, aged 7, Albert, aged 5, and one who had not survived.  By 1911 Albert was a joinery apprentice.