Memorial at last to WW1 hero

Mexborough’s Sapper William Hackett was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross by George V after he died helping four of his comrades on the Western Front in 1916.

His VC was described as “the most deserving out of all those awarded in the war” by historian Peter Barton, who has written books about the struggle.

A memorial is to be built in Givenchy in northern France where Sapper Hackett died, after a campaign by historians and military leaders raised £24,000.

Sapper Hackett, a former miner, was rejected three times by the York and Lancaster Regiment because he was too old at 42.

He finally managed to join the Army when he enlisted in the Royal Engineers tunnelling companies in 1915 and his moment of bravery came a year later.

Sapper Hackett and four other men were digging a tunnel towards enemy lines on June 27, 1916, when a mine exploded above them, burying them alive.

They managed to make a hole through the fallen earth and timber, and after 20 hours of solid digging, Sapper Hackett helped three of the men out alive.

He could have followed them but refused to leave the fourth man, who was seriously injured, saying: “I am a tunneller and must look after the others first.”

The hole was getting smaller, yet he still refused to leave his injured comrade—then the earth finally collapsed on top of them.

A rescue party worked desperately for four days but they could not reach the two men—who remain buried there to this day.

The posthumous Victoria Cross was presented to Sapper Hackett’s widow Alice at Buckingham Palace on November 29, 1916.

Field-Marshall Sir Evelyn Wood VC later said his actions were “the most divine-like act of self- sacrifice.”

The VC medal is kept at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham. The memorial will be officially unveiled at Givenchy on Saturday June 19.