World War 1, or the Great War, or simply WW1, was one of the worlds biggest and deadliest wars in history. Throughout the world, but chiefly in Europe, somewhere between 60 and 70 million military people were involved, of which about 9 million died and a further 7 million civilians were also killed. Almost no part of the world was left untouched. In the UK about 6 million men were mobilised and about 700,000 killed. Since the population of the UK in 1911 was about 43 million, that translates into 14% mobilisation (or 28% since most were male), and about 3% of the male population killed.
In Hasketon, where the population in 1911 was about 400 and would not have changed much by 1914, we have identified about 100 people with village connections who served in the various services. Since they were overwhelmingly men, that’s about half the male population of the village. There is a link to a list of them below. The war memorial in Hasketon features a total of 26 servicemen who died during World War 1. The following links are to pages with more information.
- A full list of Hasketon people who served in WW1
- Hasketon men who were killed
- Timeline of events
- Hasketon men on the Somme, 1916
- The Thiepval Memorial.
Bibliography.
In addition to the sources already mentioned, the following have been invaluable in understanding the Great War.
- Lieut-Colonel C C R Murphy. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927.
- Terry Norman. The Hell they called High Wood. The Somme 1916.
- Edward Handcock. Battleground Europe. Bazentin Ridge.
- Max Hastings. Catastrophe. Europe goes to war 1914.
- Simon Heffer. Staring at God. Britain in the Great War.
- Richard Holmes. Tommy. The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918.
- Robert Sackville-West. The Searchers – The quest for the Lost of the First World War.
The Hasketon knitted wreath.
The page on Thiepval Memorial includes some pictures of knitted poppies that have been laid on the memorial. Inspired by this the local ‘Busy Hands, Warm Hearts’ knitting group created a wreath for the Hasketon Memorial. The inscription read:
11th November 2018.
This wreath is laid in memory of the 26 men from Hasketon who fell in WW1. The 26 poppies and leaves were crocheted by the Busy Hands Warm Hearts knitting group who meet weekly at the Turks head Hasketon. The wreath is made using twigs from the silver birch trees that were planted to commemorate the the 50th anniversary of Hasketon WI.
