In the census of 1911 Joseph Haycocks was living at White Gate Cottages Gyfelia near Wrexham.  He was 26 years and had been born in Bangor on Dee.  He was at that time,  a miner, working underground at the Hafod Colliery. He had been married for 3 years to Louisa who was 23. She had given birth to three children but only two had survived. Archibald was 1 year old and James was less than a month.

(Joseph Haycocks had married Sarah Louisa Jones in 1908  Wrexham Qtr June, Vol 11b page 489)

UK soldiers Who Died in The Great War 1914-19 accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk confirms the regimental details on the left and that he enlisted in Wrexham.

Joseph’s Army Service Records have just about survived and are accessible on ‘ancestry’. They are in a very poor state and difficult to read but we can establish some of his story.

He enlisted and attested on 23rd January 1904. He was 19 years and 1 month of age and his occupation then was recorded as ‘farm labourer’. This would have made him a reservist and is why he entered the war so early – hence the 1914 star medal.

The records say that he died of wounds at No 2 Casualty Clearing station and was buried at Bailliul in a civil ceremony on the 11th June 1915.

There is some correspondence in the records naming Mrs S. L Haycocks at Whitegate Cottage, Gyfeia Wrexham as the person to whom any of Joseph’s personal property was to be sent.

Two of his children were listed in his records. They were Ernest Archibld and Joseph Alfred.