SAPPER HACKETT, V.C.
The Ypres Times
21
[The account in the last issue of The Ypres Times of the act of gallantry of
Sapper William Hackett which earned him the V.C., has attracted much attention.
We owe to the courtesy of Mr. Harold Elliott, editor of the Mexboro' and Swinton
Times," the following additional details.]
One of the most treasured possessions of Mexboro', a busy town in the heart of the
South Yorkshire Coalfield, is a Memorial Tablet affixed to the wall of the Market Hall,
and bearing the inscription
In Loving Memory of Our Townsman,
Sapper William Hackett, V.C.,
Killed on June 22nd-23rd, 1916, in France,
while rescuing his Comrades.
Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends.'"
That Tablet commemorates one of the greatest of the many great deeds of the miner-
soldiers in the Great War. It is the posthumous V.C. referred to in General Harvey's
article. The story of Sapper Hackett's heroism was told in the coldness of official language
in the Ypres Times for October but the story is better told in a letter written by Sapper
W. H. Vernon, of Rotherham, a member of the same company as Hackett, to Alderman
Winter, of Rotherham. After telling how Hackett and four of his comrades were buried
in the gallery, he wrote
Frhz started shelling, and dropped shells all round our mine. But British pluck predominated
and after battling with water, foul air and shells, we succeeded in getting three out alive after being
entombed for thirty hours. Hackett being the tallest and knowing his chum was hurt, gave the other
three preference to get out of the small holethe way to liberty and to God's sunshinewell knowing
that if he had gone first the passage would have been blocked. The heroic rescue party (officers as well
as men) worked like Trojans, but after the third man got out the Fates were unkind. The gallery
collapsed and poor Hackett and his chum were entombed a second time. We kept them alive for some
time, feeding them through pipes, but the Fates were again cruel. Another fall came, smashing the
pipes, and that was the endHaving done our best and knowing they had given their lives for their
country, we retired to avenge their deaths."
The news of the award was foreshadowed in Mexborough in a letter written by
Captain G. M. Edwardes, of Hackett's Company, to the widow. A passage in this letter
reads
I find it very difficult to express adequately the admiration I and all the officers have for the heroic
manner in which your husband met his death. Sad as his loss may be to his own people, yet his fearless
conduct and wonderful self-sacrifice must always be a source of pride and comfort to you all. Your
husband deliberately sacrificed his own life to save his comrade's, and even when three were saved he
refused to save himself because the remaining man was too injured to help himself. He has been recom
mended for the V.C.that simple medal which represents all that is brave and noble. In token of our
esteem the officers and men of this unit are sending you a small gift in the near future which we trust
will be acceptable."
In a leading article on August 12th, 1916, the Mexboro' and Swinton Times said
Probably no incident that has arisen during the course of the War has touched the people of
Mexboro' district more deeply and intimately than the moving story of the heroism, devotion and self-
sacrifice of Sapper William Hackett, V.C., a humble miner who literally died for his fellow men. It is a
story which cannot be robbed of its strange beauty by the stilted official language in which it is set forth.
The imagination is assisted and uplifted by the recital of the man's sublime act. It is good to know that
an Englishman performed itwe are intensely proud that the hero who died in the winning of the
Victoria Cross, that simple medal which stands for all that is noble and brave, was a Mexboro' man. The
circumstances of Sapper Hackett's feat are such as make a special appeal to the sympathies and to the
pride of the miners from among whom he went out to toil and to fight against England's enemies. In
circumstances of exceptional peril he rescued three men from the crumbhng bowels of a ruined sap. It
was a feat of endurance and strength, leaving out the elements of courage required of the man who under
took it. When there yet remained one injured miner who lay powerless to escape the threatened entomb
ment, Sapper Hackett was suddenly submitted to that supreme test which searches out the grossness of all
but supremely brave and unselfish menThe circumstances inverted bear a curious resemblance to that
