Second Lieutenant, Royal Fusiliers
Born: June 6th 1896
Died: March 16th 1917
Age at Death: 20
Died of Wounds, France, March 16th 1917.
Cemetery or Memorial: Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension
Town Memorial, Stretford
Son of G. Hazelhurst of East Drive, Brighton.
A donation to the memorial statue has been made in honour of this soldier by Bridget Harwood.
Lance-Corporal Bertram Hazlehurst (Hampden House 1910–1913)
Bertram Hazlehurst was born on 16 June 1896. He was the only son and eldest child of George Hazlehurst, a retired Dock Manager, and his wife Mary. George Hazlehurst was descended from a famous Methodist family which owned a soap-making company based in Runcorn, Cheshire. There are few records of Hazlehurst’s career at the College or his career immediately after he left.
On the outbreak of war he joined the 23rd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, formed as the first ‘Sportsmen’s Battalion’ and sponsored by Mrs E. Cunliffe-Owen, which was attached to the 2nd Division. On 16 March 1917 the battalion was involved in the pursuit following the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, a defence line formed on the Western Front. The Germans had orchestrated the retreat very carefully and had laid numerous ambushes and booby-traps in their wake, one of which killed Hazlehurst.
Hazlehurst’s grave is in the Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.
Source: LEST WE FORGET PROJECT, Brighton College 2014/15