Name
Nigel Clement Charles Hadden
26 February 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/04/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Royal Field Artillery
14th Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BASRA MEMORIAL
Panel 3 and 60.
Iraq
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Northchurch Village Memorial, St Mary’s Church Window, Northchurch, Individual plaque, St Mary’s Church, Northchurch, Not on the Berkhamsted memorials, Winchester College War Cloister Memorial
Pre War
Nigel Clement Charles was born on 26 February 1893 in Kensington, London, the only son of Sir Charles Frederick Hadden and Lady Frances Mabel (daughter of Lt Col Clement Strong of the Coldstream Guards). He had three older sisters, Innes, Sybil and Phyllis, however Sybil died in infancy in 1890, Phyllis died in Berkhamsted in January 1914 and Innes, who married Nigel Paton in 1908, died in India in 1919, having given birth to three children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 69 Onslow Gardens, Kensington, where they employed seven servants. His father was an Artillery officer and Major-General as Master General of Ordnance.
Nigel was educated at Elstree School and Winchester College and by the time of the 1911 Census, Nigel was a Gentleman Cadet at Woolwich. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery on 19 July 1912.
His parents were living at Rossway, Northchurch, Berkhamsted on the 1911 Census with seven servants.
Wartime Service
Nigel went France on 9 September 1914 with 43 Battery joining the BEF, and serving there to December 1915. He was promoted to Lieutenant in July 1915 and Captain in early 1916 and was posted to the 4th Brigade, R.F.A., 3rd Indian Division. They left France for Mesopotamia at the end of 1915, arriving there in time to join the Kut-el-Amara Relief Force, positioned 500 miles north of Basra.
Captain Hadden fell in action on April 9th 1916, during the first attack on the Sann-ai-yat position before Kut: he was struck by a shell while crossing a piece of open ground between his battery and the front line trenches. He died of wounds and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £54 and pay owing of £24 19s 7d. He was also granted probate of Nigel's estate in London on 22 August 1916 with effects of £6848 4s 1d.
Family grave in St Mary's Church, Northchurch has the inscription "also Nigel Clement Charles Hadden, Captain, Royal Field Artillery, Killed at the assault on Sann-aiy-at position on the Tigris, April 9th 1916, Aged 25, Rest in the Lord."
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/first-world-war-database, www.iwm.org.uk, www,winchestercollegeatwar.com
