Street naming honour for World War One Haverhill hero

Inspired by a walk down Haverhill High Street, a man started a campaign to get recognition for a local war hero.

Jackson Bacon, a soldier from Haverhill, was killed in action during the first world war.

He served in the 11th Essex Battalion and was killed in action on June 28, 1917.

Following a visit to Haverhill, Jackson’s great nephew, Andrew Thomas, 43, mounted a campaign for recognition for his great uncle.

He got in touch with Chelmsford Borough Council, where Jackson, who was born in a house in Haverhill’s High Street, moved with his new wife, and they have agreed to name a street in the city after him.

Jackson Bacon Road will be situated in a new development which will open in the next couple of years.

Mr Thomas said: “Jackson Bacon was actually a resident of Haverhill and the history of the Bacons can be traced back in the Haverhill area for many years before. Jackson met a and married a young lady from Chelmsford , where he joined the 11th Essex Battalion and sadly never returned.

“He was killed in action on the battlefields of Northern France. He went back to help a wounded officer across no mans land and was killed. He has no known burial place but it is commemorated on the memorial at Loos, France.”

Mr Thomas was delighted that there will be a commemoration of his great uncle and said his family was very pleased with the news. He has also been invited to go to Ypres in Belgium along with 50 war veterans to tour the war graves and memorials there.

“I’ve been in the military myself,” said Mr Thomas. “But what they went through in that war was something else.

“That kind of warfare was utterly horrifying. You think, it was an entirely different world back then.”