Reginald Frederick Johnson Hayward

He held his company together despite repeated severe wounds.

Reginald Frederick Johnson Hayward was born in South Africa on 17 June 1891. Educated at Hilton College, he went to Britain to study veterinary science. Commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment in 1914, he reached France in March 1915 and earned the Military Cross and a bar in later fighting.

During the German offensive near Frémicourt in March 1918, Hayward kept command despite burial, head injuries, deafness and a shattered arm. Moving between exposed positions, he reorganised the defences and encouraged his company until he collapsed. His endurance earned the Victoria Cross.

He remained in the Army after the war, serving in Ireland, Egypt and Palestine before entering the reserve in 1935. Recalled during the Second World War, he served with Anti-Aircraft Command and later commanded prisoner-of-war camps. Retiring as an honorary lieutenant colonel in 1947, he worked for the BBC and then managed games at the Hurlingham Club. He died in Chelsea on 17 January 1970.

VICTORIA CROSS CITATION

For most conspicuous bravery in action.

This officer, while in command of a company, displayed almost superhuman powers of endurance and consistent courage of the rarest nature. In spite of the fact that he was buried, wounded in the head, and rendered deaf on the first day of operations, and had his arm shattered two days later, he refused to leave his men (even though he received a third serious injury to his head), until he collapsed from sheer physical exhaustion.

Throughout the whole of this period the enemy were attacking his company front without cessation, but Captain Hayward continued to move across the open from one trench to another with absolute disregard of his own personal safety, concentrating entirely on re-organising his defences and encouraging his men.

It was almost entirely due to the magnificent example of ceaseless energy of this officer that many most determined attacks upon his portion of the trench system failed entirely.