Hagestadt, John

BORN HULL 1880. SON OF JOHN WILLIAM HAGESTADT (1849-1887) AND JANE BEALE, OF 92 NEWSTEAD STEET (1911 CENSUS) AND 2 NEWSTEAD AVENUE, NEWSTEAD STREET HULL (CWGC ADDRESS). HIS GRANDFATHER WAS FROM OLDINBURG, GERMANY. A SINGLE MAN. HE WORKED AS A CLERK. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED WITH THE 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE (HULL COMMERCIALS) BATTALION. HE WAS KILLED IN ACTION, ON 07/09/1918, AGED 38. BURIED IN FRANCE, AT TROIS ARBRES CEMETERY, STEENWERCK.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN HAGESTADT 39681. Born in 1880, John was the third of four children to John W and Jane Hagestadt of 92 Newstead Street, Hull. John Snr died in 1887 leaving Jane to raise the children on her own, not an easy ask in Victorian England. John was a Clerk before the war, and wasn’t in a hurry to leave his desk. He attested in December 1916 and spent the following year with the Training Battalion before being posted to the 3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and sent to France in April 1918. He was transferred to the 10th Battalion on 18th August and was with them less than a month. John Hagestadt was killed in action on 7th September 1918 as the Pals attempted to drive the Germans back beyond the River Lys, but were met with stubborn resistance. His Military Records state he was “Buried in isolated grave nr Soyer Farm 2 miles north of Armentieres” which sounds just about as lonely a place to die as I can imagine. His body was exhumed after the Armistice and buried in Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck; he was 38 years old. In early 1919 Jane Hagestadt was sent his personal effects, a few photographs and postcards. She had only her youngest daughter left at home; it must have felt a lonely place.