Mervyn Ernest Hazen was born at Rutherglen, Victoria on 13 January 1894, one of seven children born to Robert Alfred Hazen and Ellen Jane Ware. Several years after the death of his sister Annie May, Robert, Ellen and their two surviving children, Mervyn and Francis George, moved to Yarrawonga, Victoria. There the couple had three more children – Charles Robert, Hilda Mary, and Gordon Claremont.

At Yarrawonga, Mervyn was educated at the local public school and was later employed as a builder and carpenter before the outbreak of the First World War. On 7 August 1915, Mervyn enlisted in the AIF at the age of 21 and embarked with the 21st Australian Infantry Battalion, 14th Reinforcements from Melbourne on board HMAT Themistocles on 28 July 1916.

Like many of the men serving on the Western Front in 1917, Private Hazen experienced the abysmal, muddy conditions of battlefields in France and Belgium. In February 1917, the Germans withdrew several kilometres to their newly-formed defensive zone called “the Hindenburg Line” and the Australians moved forward to occupy towns previously held by the enemy.

On 20 March 1917, companies from the 21st Battalion were ordered to move forward and establish a new line around Bapaume, France where Private Hazen was gravely wounded. He died the following day at No. 3 Australian Casualty Clearing Station. Sister Ida O’Dwyer of the Australian Army Nursing Service, present at his death, wrote to his mother in Yarrawonga offering her condolences.

Mervyn Ernest Hazen is buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension in Picardie, France.