Pte Henry John Hatfield

Henry was originally from Edmonton, but moved to Brentwood as a young boy in the 1880s, to Oakhurst Farm, Navestock Lane, South Weald. His father was a farmer there until he died in 1909. After Henry married a local girl on 4th August 1904, the couple moved to Brentwood to live with Henry's new father in law. He and his wife started a family and he worked as an assistant in a draper's shop, a line of work one of his brother's also followed.

During the first world war he served in the Essex Regiment, starting in the 1st Battalion and then moving to the 2nd, although the date of his joining is unknown since his military records are lost. He was killed fighting in France in 1917. It is unclear what the offensive was that he was killed in, but at least 6 other men from the 2nd Essex died on the same day - many of their bodies never recovered - suggesting there was an offensive during which they were killed. Henry's body was also never found.

He is remembered on the St Thomas' War Memorial and on a family gravestone in the churchyard, as well as on the Arras Memorial in France.