Lloyd Clarence Hazelton

Rank:

Private

Regimental number:

164285

Unit at enlistment:

84th Battalion

Force:

C.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Yes

Wounded:

Yes

Commemorated at:

First Baptist Church

Birth country:

Canada

Birth county:

Brant

Birth city:

Brantford, Ontario

Address at enlistment:

19 Chatham Street, Brantford, Ontario

Next of kin address:

19 Chatham Street, Brantford, Ontario

Trade or calling:

Printer

Employer:

Brantford Expositor

Religious denominations:

Baptist

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Letters and documents

BX July 24, 1916

84th Batt. Was Used for Drafts – Letter From Member of Expositor Staff Tells of The Partings

The 84th Battalion is no more, having been drafted into the 75th and 73rd. The following letter has been received at this office from Pte. Lloyd Hazelton, formerly of the linotype department of The Expositor, and this tells of the break-up of the battalion which wintered here:

July 7, 1916

Dear Bill and the others,

Just a line to inform you that yours truly arrived in England all O.K. and feeling fine. The only drawback is that the good old 84th Battalion has been split up, as many other good battalions have been and I suppose will be. Seven hundred men, including all of our section along with three officers, were drafted to the 75th Battalion. I believe we will be just as well off there when everything gets in running order as our men are in the majority. However it will never take the place of the 84th. It may seem queer to you, but the majority of the men and all the officers found it harder saying goodbye to one another than they did saying goodbye in Toronto. On the whole there was certainly a great difference in the two gatherings. We were taken to Borden Camp on our arrival and were only there 24 hours when the draft left for Bramshott Camp to join the 75th, a distance of about eight or ten miles. The remainder of the men were drafted to the 73rd Highlanders, but I do not know where the remainder of the officers went.

I do not know when we get our six day passes but do not expect it will be for a few weeks as we are taking a two weeks’ course in musketry at Longmoor Camp.

I have nothing more of interest to say except that I like the country as far as we have gone. The weather has been fine. I had one look at King George at a review held of the fourth Canadian division. There were about 25,000 troops on parade, including artillery, etc. I also saw Pat Prime and some other Brantford boys in the 40th Battery. Pat is looking fine. Well must close, give my best to all the “men” and drop me a line or paper when possible. I remain,

Yours truly
Pte. L. Hazelton,
No 164285
75th Batt., C.E.F.
C/o Army Post Office,
London, Eng.

BX October 3, 1916

The Expositor in the Trenches – Interesting Letter From Former Member of Expositor Linotype Staff.

The following letter from Lloyd Clarence Hazelton, formerly of the linotype staff of The Expositor, has been received by W. Reeves of that department:

September 15, 1916
Friday

Somewhere in France
“The Trenches”

Received your letter some days ago and it certainly was appreciated. I also get the papers quite regularly and have a fairly good route also. The only difference from home is that the customers call for the papers instead of having them delivered at their doors. B.S.M. Kerr also got the “Ex” and if he has as much demand for his papers as I have for mine, the Brantford boys in this battalion often get a look at “Brantford’s Largest Daily.”

Well, we are still in the trenches and have been very fortunate as regards casualties, considering the length of time we have spent in here. However we expect to get out for a rest in a few days and the boys will be ready for it. A rest always means a good bath and also a change of underclothing. That is something to look forward to when you take into consideration the variety of animals they have over here. Some of the fellows’ call them insects, but our section have decided to put them down as animals. Maybe it is the billet we live in that has caused the charge.

By the way, I had quite an exciting moment the other day when a shell burst about 30 or 40 yards from me. My mate and I were delivering a message by bicycle, when a shell missed our heads by a few feet and landed close behind us. I have not any idea how far above us it was, but it felt as though an express train was passing by. Some feeling alright. However they tell us we have to get used to it, and I suppose we will in time. It is something like the feeling you have when you have a “squirt” (mechanical trouble with a linotype).

I read the letter from Harris Walsh. He is lucky to be having a rest, and surely deserves it. Most of the old soldiers here say a fellow is lucky to get a “blighty” and return to England for a while. I suppose at home you don’t figure it out that way. I don’t either, but by the time we get a good touch of winter I imagine I will begin to think London looks pretty good.

Well I must close. Remember me to all the boys and don’t forget to write at your first opportunity. I am well and enjoying the life fine. So long for now, I remain.

Your friend,

L.C.H.
No. 164285
75th Battalion
c/o Army Post Office,
London

BX October 26, 1916

84th Boys Had a Strenuous Time in the Trenches – Spent 24 Days in Firing Line At One Stretch – On a New Sector Now

October 7, 1916
“Billets,” Somewhere in France

For the past two weeks we have been on the jump and I have not had time to correspond with any of my friends. After we came out of the trenches, where we spent 24 days at a stretch, we had orders to proceed to so-and-so and that took up three days on the road. It sure was a hard trip, but we did it. When we reached our destination we had to get into fighting shape again and after a week hard training started on another tour. This tour was not all on the road, as we entrained for a day and the other three days we travelled by foot. However we had not reached our destination yet, but expect to be up in the trenches again in a day or so. We have had quite a rest mentally, but physically it has been the hardest two weeks’ work I ever had the pleasure to go through. However I am all O.K. and never felt better in my life. It is not the exercise or overwork that puts a man on the pocks as much as it is the strain on the nerves when in the trenches. Our stay in the line last time was a very exceptional one, and I hope it is the last time we will be called on to do it.

I still get the paper regularly. I see you are going to billet the 215th in the armories this winter. I hope they enjoy it as much as the 84th did. Quite frequently I heard different fellows speak of the good times they spent in Brantford. There is also a lot of mail coming from home. Also the 125th are situated in the same huts at Bramshott Camp that we were. When we left there a few of us put an epitaph on the wall of our hut and last week a friend of mine in the signal section of the “Brants” wrote me a line telling all about it. If he happens to follow us up I will hear from him often, as we always leave our trade mark in the different billets.

I was speaking to B.S.M. Kerr last evening and he had the pleasure of seeing his son yesterday for the first time in two years. I believe he left Canada with the 4th Battalion, but is now on brigade. I have not met any of the Brantford boys here as yet, but expect to in a day or so.

Well I must close as we are going for a bath shortly. Of course we don’t need it. We have not had a change for nearly a month. Don’t forget to remember me to all the boys and write occasionally. I remain yours sincerely.

L.C. Hazelton
No 164285
Signal Section, 5th Batt.
Care Army Post Office, London

BX January 16, 1917

Sig. L. Hazelton Sends a Cheery Letter Home – Two Fingers of Right Hand Are Useless, But He Can Write – Knee Wound Serious

Much improved in health and able to write with his right hand, although two fingers are useless, Signaller Lloyd Hazelton, who is in the Shirley Warren Hospital, Southampton, England, wrote an encouraging and bright letter, which was received yesterday by his mother, Mrs. M. Hazelton, Commercial Chambers. His left hand is now almost all right as is his left knee, but his right knee is still causing him trouble. The extension splint will be taken off next Friday, and if it works all right he will be able to get out in a wheelchair.

In a letter written on Dec. 24 he said that he was in hopes of being up for Christmas, but had no such luck. In his previous letter he had stated that his leg was fractured, but it was only dislocated and contracted at the knee, so that his right leg was shorter than his left. However the extension splint and the seven-pound weigh pulling on his leg was gradually getting it out all right and his hands, he says, are fine. The letter written on Dec. 30 and received today was as follows:

December 30, 1917

Well mother, I am much improved in condition. I think you can tell the condition of my right hand by the writing, even if my first two fingers are of no use to me. I hold the pencil between my thumb and first finger, but the writing is all arm movement. The left hand is all finished now. The left knee is also finished, and I can bend it fine, but the right knee is still unfinished. It is still in the extension splint, but it comes off next Friday, and that means the doctor will bend the knee which, by the way, hurts greatly. If it works all right it will mean that I shall be able to get out in a wheelchair and later on try to walk. The nurse told me only this morning that the salt water baths they used to put me in every day for three hours saved my right leg from being compounded at the hip, so you see I have been lucky, and moreover I am safe now and will be walking about in a month.

In regards to returning to the front the doctor says I am absolutely safe and will return to Canada, but I shall be convalescent for a long time, so you cannot expect me before next spring. However, my suffering is very nearly over and you need not worry, as I am all right.

Let me tell you a little about our Christmas festivities. To begin with I used to be in a small ward with only three patients, very bad cases. Then I was moved to the big ward, where there are 12 beds and it is very much brighter, as three of the boys are able to get out of bed and about every night there is a pillow fight with the next ward. I am in with a very cheerful crowd, and it has done me a world of good, as I have to keep up the reputation of Canada. We also have a piano in the ward, and some of the convalescent boys have put on a concert every night since Christmas.

Our Christmas dinner was composed of chicken, pork or beef, potatoes, vegetables, Christmas pudding, oranges, nuts, cigarettes, chocolates, stout or ale (by the way, I have a bottle of stout every night, so you see I am a regular artist now). We also received many presents of cigarettes and sweets and I certainly enjoyed myself.

I received your cable the day after Christmas and it was quite a novelty to the boys. They enjoyed it as much as I did. I also got a letter from Norman the other day, and only yesterday I got the Christmas Expositor. So I do fairly well for mail. Tell my friends to write often, although I can’t answer them all.

BX February 14, 1917

Had 27 Wounds

Signaller Lloyd Hazelton of the 84th Battalion, now convalescing at Shirley Warren hospital, Southampton, writes to a friend here stating that his wounds are practically all healed up – there having been 27 of them. His right knee, which was badly damaged, keeps him confined to his bed.

BX March 13, 1917

Cheery News

That he had been up and taken out of the first time was the cheery news received this morning by Mrs. M. Hazleton form her son, Signaller Lloyd Hazelton, who has for some length of time been confined to hospital. He expects to be taken to a convalescent home at Epsom very shortly he states.

BX November 10, 1916

Pte. L.C. Hazelton Badly Wounded – Has Gunshot Wounds in Back, Hands and Legs, and Leg Fractured

Still another member of the old 84th Signalling Corp has been wounded, word being received today by Mrs. M. Hazelton that her son, Private Lloyd Clarence Hazelton, for many years on The Expositor mechanical staff, had been wounded and admitted to No. 3 Stationary hospital at Rouen, on Oct. 28. His wounds consist of a gunshot wound in the back, and the hands and legs, and he also had his left leg fractured.

Apparently Private Hazelton was wounded about the same time his chum, Pte. Alfred Linton was killed, for in a letter received recently he said that he and Linton had been paired off together. The letter, which was written on Oct. 15 bore testimony to the heavy fighting they had been through. For one week the only means of communication between the front line of trenches and the base had been the signallers. The day before he wrote the letter home he had been slightly wounded by a “whizz-bang,” but had remained on duty.

At the time of his enlistment, Private Hazelton was working at the Expositor, where he had learned his trade. He is the first of the employees who enlisted directly from this office to be wounded. It was in August 1915 that he enlisted with the 38th Dufferin Rifles here. He went to Niagara Camp with a draft and was later attached to the 84th Battalion.

With the 84th Battalion he spent last winter here and went overseas in June. On reaching England the signallers were transferred to the 75th Battalion, and within six weeks time he was in the trenches, where he has been ever since. A brother, Norman, is a sergeant with the 215th Battalion, the war having broken up Mrs. Hazelton’s home the call of King and country taking both of her sons.

In a recent letter home Pte. Hazelton had a high word of praise for Pte. Alfred Linton of Hamilton, who was yesterday reported killed in action, stating that he was one of the bravest boys he had ever met. Another member of the 84th signallers, Corp. Alex Brown was also reported killed yesterday.

BX May 9, 1917

Signaller Lloyd Clarence Hazelton, son of Mrs. M. Hazleton of the Commercial Chambers and a former employee of The Expositor mechanical department, who for the past six months has been in English hospitals, is thought to be on his way home now. In November last he was reported wounded, suffering from gunshot wounds in the back, hand and legs and also a fractured leg. Today his mother had a letter written on April 23. In this he stated that he had been out walking for the first time with two canes. He expected then to leave within a day or two for Canada or the longest within seven days.

BX June 26, 1917

Landed At Halifax

That her son, Signaller Lloyd Hazelton, had landed at Halifax on his way home was the word received by Mrs. M. Hazelton, Commercial Chambers. Lloyd Hazelton was a former employee of The Expositor and went overseas with the 84th Battalion.

BX July 6, 1917

Sig. L. Hazelton Returns Home – Former Linotyper With The Expositor Able to Walk With Sticks Aid

After a year’s absence from Brantford, one month of which was spent in an English training camp, three in the trenches and eight in a hospital and convalescent home in England, Signaller Lloyd Clarence Hazelton, formerly on the staff of The Expositor, returned to his home here yesterday afternoon. In October of last year he was wounded in the battle of the Somme and although thin, looks fairly fit and is able to get around with the aid of a walking stick. It was about a year ago that the 84th Battalion left Brantford for England. On arriving there practically all the men and a number of officers were transferred to the 75th Battalion. At the time Signaller Hazelton was wounded he went up the lines with two other 84th signallers, who were both killed. After being wounded he was sent to a hospital at Southampton and from there to a convalescent home at Wokingham, Berkshire. He speaks well of the treatment in the hospital and convalescent home and says there is nothing to complain of. Restrictions have been placed on the food, but despite that they get plenty to eat. While at the convalescent home the 215th Battalion reached England and his brother, Sergt. Norman Hazelton visited him.