Alfred George Hayman was born on 26th February 1884 at Clifton, Bristol, the youngest of three children and only son of Alfred George Hayman, a dentist, and his wife, Ellen Dorothy. He was living with his family at Elm, near Frome, Somerset, in 1891, was a pupil at Malvern College from 1898-1901 and was a student at Oxford in 1901.
After a career in the army with the Welsh Regiment, Alfred resigned his commission in 1911. It was probably then that he moved to Wickhamford to study farming. His aunt, Emily Ann Carter (née Hayman), was married to farmer, Benjamin Carter, who often took farm pupils; they lived at Field Farm, Wickhamford. Alfred was also following in the footsteps of his cousin, Stanley Morris Hayman, who had been a farm pupil with Benjamin Carter in 1905-1906. At the double wedding in September 1910 of the two daughters of Benjamin and Emily Carter, Alfred was one of the guests; his address then was given as Hapsford House, Frome, which was his parents’ home.
When Alfred married Marjory Vivian Mary Butt on 20th March 1912 at Walford, Herefordshire, the marriage banns gave his address as Wickhamford. Marjory had been born in America of British parentage. She had been a bridesmaid at the wedding of Alfred’s sister, Beatrice, in July 1910. Alfred and Marjory's marriage was described as “a very interesting and fashionable wedding”.
Just two days after their wedding, they sailed to Canada. The report of their wedding in The Ross Gazette of 28th March said: "Later in the afternoon, Mr & Mrs A G Hayman, amid heartiest congratulations and best wishes, left for Birmingham, en route for Canada, sailing on Friday last on Empress of India". Alfred was going to take up farming. His cousin, Stanley Hayman, had emigrated in 1907. In addition, Benjamin Carter’s son by his first marriage, Benjamin Atwell Carter, had emigrated to Canada in 1891, so this also perhaps influenced Alfred’s decision. A daughter, Elizabeth Dorothy, was born in Canada in 1913.
On the outbreak of the Great War, Alfred joined the Canadian Rifles, but then decided it was time to return to England. On 17th July 1915, Alfred, Marjory and baby Elizabeth arrived at Liverpool from New York. Alfred described himself as a farmer and their country of last permanent residence was Canada. He rejoined his old Regiment and left for France in early 1916. Here are details of his war service. Alfred was killed on 9th September 1916 and was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.
A tribute in "The Malvernian" (his old school magazine) of November 1916 said:
He went through a great deal of very hard fighting, in which he showed conspicuous bravery (as those who knew him here felt sure he would); while his good nature made him very popular both with officers and men. He was wounded early in July, but was soon at the front again, and was killed while leading his Company into the front line on Sept 9th.
Just 12 weeks before Alfred died, Marjory gave birth to their second daughter, Ellen Rosemary, on 19th June 1916. Marjory was then living at Cromarty, Elmsleigh Road, Weston-super-Mare.
Marjory never remarried and died at Bodmin, Cornwall, in 1970.