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His determination to 'do his bit' for king and country made him the bravest of the brave. And yet for 94 years the remains of First World War tunneller Sapper William Hackett, who sacrificing his life to stay with a seriously injured colleague, have lain unmarked beneath a foreign field.
Now a slate memorial is being built where the former miner died, thanks to a campaign by historians and military leaders which raised £24,000. Having turned 40 by the outbreak of the Great War, as well as being diagnosed with a heart condition, Sapper Hackett was considered too old and infirm to fight on the Western Front.
Instead he joined an elite group of skilled miners whose job was to blow up German trenches by digging tunnels beneath no man's land. He died a hero in June 1916 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the only tunneller to receive the honour.
His VC was described as 'the most deserving out of those awarded in the war' by historian Peter Barton, who has written books about the conflict. And his memorial will be officially unveiled in Givenchy, northern France, on June 19.
While millions of brave young men made the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War, Sapper Hackett's story stands out as among the most remarkable.
Born in Nottingham in 1873, he became a coal miner at the age of 18 and later moved to Mexborough, South Yorkshire, with his wife Alice and their two children. In 1914, when war was declared on Germany, he tried three times to enlist but was considered too old.
By 1915 there was a desperate need to recruit miners to dig tunnels and attack enemy lines with bombs from below the surface - a tactic featured in Sebastian Faulks's best- selling novel, Birdsong.
Sapper Hackett was accepted into the Royal Engineers and sent to France after a fortnight's training.
His moment of supreme bravery came a year later when he and four other men were digging a tunnel 40ft below ground towards enemy lines and a mine exploded on top of them.
They were entombed underground but rescuers managed to make a hole through the fallen earth and broken timber after 20 hours of digging.
Sapper Hackett, who was not injured, helped three of the men out to safety but refused to leave Thomas Collins, 22, saying: 'I am a tunneller and must look after the others first.'
The pair stayed there for four days as rescuers worked to reach the injured man. Eventually, the tunnel and shaft collapsed and they died.
In a letter to his family, section commander Captain GM Edwardes wrote: 'William Hackett's fearless conduct and wonderful self- sacrifice must always be a source of pride and comfort to you all.'
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