| Date |
Information |
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| 08/02/2022 |
Private Alfred Hayes arrived in the Balkans with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 25th April 1915. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Alfred Hayes was born on 8th May 1888 in Cookstown, County Tyrone. He was one of at least twelve children. |
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Known family: William Hayes, Sarah Ann Hayes, Henry Hayes (born England), William Hayes (born about 1872, England), Isabella Hayes (born 8th March 1874, Londonderry), Catherine Hayes (born 16th May 1876, died 27th May 1876, Londonderry), James Hayes (born 13th May 1877, Londonderry), George Hayes (born 5th July 1879, Londonderry), Mabel Jane Hayes (born 6th November 1881, Londonderry), Andrew Henry Hayes (born 14th February 1884, Omagh), John Hayes (born 26th February 1886, Cookstown), Alfred Hayes (born 8th May 1888, Cookstown), Ethel Hayes (born about 1891), Adeline Lucy Hayes (born 23rd June 1892, Cookstown), Dudley O’Neill Hayes (born 7th August 1896, Cookstown), Dorothy Hayes (born about 1897). |
| 08/02/2022 |
Alfred’s father, William Hayes, died of exhaustion and exposure in Cookstown on 12th December 1896, aged 54. |
| 08/02/2022 |
The family moved to Belfast. |
| 08/02/2022 |
The 1901 census lists Alfred as age 12, living with the family at house 120 in Canmore Street, Belfast. His mother was a widow. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Alfred Hayes enlisted in Belfast on 4th January 1907, aged 18. He served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Service No. 8908) in Malta, China and India. |
| 08/02/2022 |
The 1911 census does not list Alfred as living with the family at house 57 in Bracken Street, Shankill, Belfast. |
| 08/02/2022 |
He was wounded in action and suffered gunshot wounds to his back, left hip and left leg. After he recovered, pieces of shrapnel remained in his body. In 1918 in France he was transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (No. 49793) and attached to 108th Trench Mortar Battery (Ulster Division). |
| 08/02/2022 |
Lance Corporal Alfred Hayes (aged 30) and Annie Smith (aged 21) of 79 Tennant Street, Belfast were married on 8th April 1919 in St. Silas’s Church of Ireland Church, Belfast. Annie Smith was a daughter of Joseph Smith, a dock labourer. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Lance Corporal Alfred Hayes was discharged from the Army on 15th September 1919 and awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. |
| 08/02/2022 |
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| 08/02/2022 |
Alfred Hayes was a son of William and Sarah Ann Hayes. William Hayes and Sarah Ann Mitchell were married on 27th May 1871 in Colchester, England. William Hayes was a Recruiting Sergeant for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. |
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| 08/02/2022 |
Private Alfred Hayes is buried in Holywood Cemetery. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Private Hayes also served in France. |
| 08/02/2022 |
In 1917 Private Alfred Hayes was awarded the Military Medal (London Gazette dated 9th July 1917). |
| 08/02/2022 |
On 16th September 1919 he re-enlisted and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (No. 206461). It was noted that he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and, because of the shrapnel in his body, he was discharged as being medically unfit on 22 September 1919. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Alfred’s mother, Sarah Ann Hayes, was 67 when she died of cancer on 26th June 1921 in Belfast. |
| 08/02/2022 |
In 1934 Alfred Hayes wrote to the War Office from his home in 38 Moltke Street, Belfast. The Army had never given him a copy of his discharge papers and they could not locate his papers in any of their offices. Alfred Hayes was unemployed, and he said that he needed the papers to get a job. He said that he was ‘finding things getting hard’. |
| 08/02/2022 |
During the Second World War Alfred Hayes served with the 6th (Home Defence) Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles. |
| 08/02/2022 |
Private Alfred Hayes was 51 when he died of septicaemia on 6th February 1940 in Knocknagoney Military Hospital |
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