Date de naissance: 19/03/1895

Lieu de naissance: Brightwater, Tasman, New Zealand

Profession: Agriculteur

Pays: New Zealand

Force armée: New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Rang: Private

Numéro de service: 11661

Incorporation date: 11/01/1916

Incorporation nom de lieu: Trentham, Wellington, New Zealand

Unités:  —  Canterbury Regiment, 2nd Bn.  (Dernière unité connue)

Date de décès: 12/10/1917

Lieu de décès: Bellevue, Belgique

Cause du décès: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Âge: 22

British War Medal Médaille — 20/10/1921

Victory Medal Médaille — 28/08/1922

Private Lewis Roy Gordon Haycock was part of the 12th company of the 2nd Battalion Canterbury Regiment, 2nd New Zealand Brigade, New Zealand Division. His battalion took part in the First Battle of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. The 2nd and 12th companies of the 2nd Battalion Canterbury Regiment went forward on the night of the 10th/11th with the 2nd Otago battalion and dug in near Korek and Boethoek on the Graventafel Spur. On the 12th of October the 2nd Otago Battalion attacked the first objective around Bellevue, but the advance was stopped by machine gun fire from German pillboxes located on at the Graventafel-Mosselmarkt road. The 2nd and 12th companies of the 2nd Canterbury Battalion were called up from reserve and tried to flank the pillboxes in Bellevue, but failed due to the heavy fire from the German pillboxes and the lines of barbed wire. After both attacks had failed the advance crumbled and men still in the field came under machine gun and sniper fire. Private Lewis Roy Gordon Haycock was reported missing after the attack and later reported killed in action. His notebook (dated 1917) did find its way back to his relatives in New Zealand despite the fact that he was missing. How this happened remains a mystery, but it's not unlikely that he gave the notebook to a friend or chaplain before the battle (his last entry was made on the 10th) to safeguard it in case something happened to him. This person could have returned it to New Zealand.

Chris McCarthy, Passchendaele : The Day-by-Day account, 2018, 128-131. Sources utilisées

CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/847649/haycock,-lewis-roy-gordon/ Sources utilisées

David Ferguson, The History of the Canterbury Regiment N.Z.E.F. 1914-1919, 1921, 196-198. Sources utilisées

Edward Latter, Marching Onward: the history of the 2nd Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, 1992, 72. Sources utilisées

NZ-project http://nzef.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=110904 Sources utilisées

Richard Palmer, The life and death of a New Zealand soldier in World War One, 2015, 139 -143. Sources utilisées

the Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/ Sources utilisées