Next of kin plaque: Private Frederick Hayward, 1st Battalion, AIF

Place Middle East: Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, Anzac Area (Gallipoli), Lone Pine Area, Lone Pine
Accession Number RELAWM17375.003
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Heraldry
Physical description Bronze
Date made c 1921
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'FREDERICK HAYWARD'.

History / Summary

Born in Tenterfield, New South Wales in 1890, Frederick (Fred) Hayward was employed as a labourer in the Manning River district of northern NSW when he enlisted in the AIF in Sydney on 3 September 1914. Assigned a private, service number 1011, to H Company, 1st Battalion, he left Sydney for overseas service on 18 October, aboard HMAT A19 Afric.

Illness prevented Hayward from leaving Egypt for Gallipoli with his battalion, but he joined them there on 7 May. He was shot in the head at Lone Pine on 25 August and taken to the 3rd Field Ambulance's dressing station at Brown's Dip, where he died the following day. Hayward is buried in the Beach Cemetery at Gallipoli.

Although Hayward claimed to have no relations when he enlisted, and his father Charles W Hayward had died in 1910, his mother Margaret M Hayward was alive at the time of his death as she remarried Edward Ahearn in 1928. Whatever his real family circumstances, Hayward nominated his friend, John Flemming, then living Camden Haven on the north coast, as his contact and made a will in his favour. Flemming advised the army that Hayward, who had lived with him for a number of years, had always said that he had no relations. He further agreed to accept this commemorative plaque, issued to him in October 1921, together with his friend's medals, on the proviso that he would pass them on to a relative if one was ever located.