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Lieutenant Robert Valentine HAZARD
2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment attached to the 3rd Battalion Nigerian Regiment Date of birth: 3rd August 1895 Date of death: 9th May 1925 Died aged 29 Buried at Calabar, Nigeria
Robert Valentine Hazard was born at Pulham St Mary on the 3rd of August 1895 the second son of William Henry Hazard, a solicitor, and Marguerite (nee Tooth) Hazard of “Caltofts”, Harleston in Norfolk. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from May 1908 to July 1913. He achieved his School Certificate in 1913. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps and attended the Lancing College Officer Training Corps Camp at Mytchett Farm, Farnborough, Hampshire in August 1913. He was commissioned as a probationary 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Norfolk (Special Reserve of Officers) on the 31st of March 1915 and was confirmed in his rank in April 1916. He was posted to the 1/4th Battalion of his regiment and was seconded for service with the Machine Gun Corps on the 19th of August 1916. He landed in Egypt on the 29th of August where he joined the 163rd Machine Gun Company which was guarding positions on the Suez Canal. He was promoted to temporary Lieutenant on the 1st of October 1916 and to Lieutenant on the 1st of July 1917. He took part in the advance across the desert of Sinai, receiving his baptism of fire on Mansura Ridge at the First Battle of Gaza on the 26th of March 1917. It was during these operations that his pack animals, while picketed in a wadi, came under fire from the flank. Robert Hazard with great coolness and courage, and acting upon his own initiative, led his men out from shelter to rescue these animals at a very critical moment, with the result that no casualties occurred either to men or animals. But for his gallantry a serious stampede would have been highly probable. He was also present at the Second Battle of Gaza on the 19th April, and at the operations following the Third Battle of Gaza (2nd of November to the 4th of November 1917) culminating in the establishment of the Jaffa - Jerusalem line. He was seconded to the Machine Gun Corps from the 4th of November 1917 to the 1st of April 1921 when he rejoined the 2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment. He served with them in Aden and in Nigeria where he was attached to the 3rd Battalion Nigerian Regiment on the 12th of November 1924. He died, most probably of yellow fever, at the Calabar European Hospital, Nigeria. His brother, William Noel Hazard OL 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment, was killed in action on the 26th of August 1918.

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