Nearly all the information used to write about the lives of the men who went from Hanney and did not return, has been sourced from the census returns; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; army records where available (many were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War); parish records and some information passed on by families.
Many of the men were so young that they had not had time to leave much of a mark in the village, just a baptism in the parish records and a couple of census entries. We have therefore included some history of each family to try and give a more rounded picture of them. And to show why, for most of them, joining the army was a very real alternative to finding work locally, and replacing the large families they were used to with the comradeship of the forces.
From the First World War
John Thomas Arthurs Born 1879, Died 1st June 1918, Age 39
Horace Barrett Baptised 9th April 1893, Died 13th May 1915, Age 22
William Breakspear MM Born 24th November 1888, Died 1st May 1918, Age 29
Frank Breakspear Born 12th April 1895, Died 7th May 1917, Age 22
Henry Bunce Born 1878, Died 9th May 1915, Age 27
Victor Bunce Born 29th June 1891, Died 26th September 1915, Age 24
James Church Baptised 10th October 1886, Died 23rd November 1914, Age 27
Albert Leonard Church Born 17th February 1890, Died 24th April 1917, Age 27
Arthur Church Baptised 13th August 1893, Died 17th February 1917, Age 23
Maurice Church Born 11th October 1895, Died 22nd August 1917, Age 21
Percy John Dandridge Born October 1893, Died 22nd November 1918, Age 25
Robert Dandridge Born 27th May 1899, Died 21st August 1915, Age 16
Albert James Darter Born 18th January 1873, Died 15th May 1915, Age 42
Sidney James Dunsden Baptised 25th April 1890, Died 22nd September 1914, Age 24
Frederick Eustace Born October 1888, Died 24th March 1918, Age 29
John Godfrey Baptised 3rd July 1887, Died 1st December 1918, Age 31
William Godfrey Baptised January 1892, Died 2nd April 1918, Age 26
Albert Wilfred Herman Born 31st May 1897, Died 26 December 1917, Age 20
Frank Lamble Born 27th December 1890, Died 26th October 1915, Age 25
Murdoch Alexander Mackay Born 3rd November 1891, Died 19th May 1915, Age 23
William Vincent Monk Born 23rd January 1890, Died 28th October 1916, Age 26
Eli William Pullen Born 1882, Died 30th November 1915, Age 33
Jesse Stallwood Born October 1885, Died 26th October 1914, Age 29
Albert Henry Steel Born 24th January 1884, Died 15th March 1915, Age 31
Frederick Steel Born 21st June 1886, Died 28th October 1914, Age 28
Joseph William Whitfield Born January 1884, Died 25th September 1915, Age 31
Malcolm Whitfield Born 14th November 1889, Died 2nd February 1916, Age 26
Two men who are remembered on the tablet in the church, have not come back as having any connection to Hanney from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and there are no local records of them.
The names of three men who died in the war and are not commemorated here, came back with ‘connections to Hanney’ from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
George Alexander Aldworth Baptised 29th January 1883, Died 26th July 1916, Age 33
Luke Burnett Born 1890, Died 25th April 1915, Age 25
Percy Lay Born October 1888, Died 18th October 1918, Age 30
These five men were all born in Hanney but lived elsewhere at the time of enlistment.
Bert Broughton Born 1894, Died 21st May 1917, Age 22
Sidney George Bullock Born 25th March 1888, Died 28th November 1917, Age 29
Henry James Burley Born 1878, Died 12th December 1917, Age 39
Charles John Hawkins Born 1899, Died 3rd December 1918, Age 19
Arthur William Snoshill Born 19th January 1890, Died 6th August 1915, Age 25