Albert Haycock was born in Haggerston, a suburb of London, England in the early 1890s and moved to Canada in 1909. He worked as a farm hand and carpenter in Brant County, Ontario and had a brother Joseph living in Huron County. Soon after the First World War began in 1914, Albert enlisted in the Canadian artillery and saw action in France. During leave he returned to his relatives in London and met Louisa Wickson (born 1895). She had worked in a garment factory. The couple married in London on October 27, 1917 and their first daughter Winnifred was born the next year.

 

After the war, Albert brought his family to Canada, settling in the Humber Bay neighbourhood, in a house quaintly called Orchard Cottage. Their son Kenneth (“Ken”) was born June 23, 1920 in Toronto. The Haycocks moved frequently throughout Ken's childhood. In 1921, they were living at 18 Drayton Avenue, north of the railroad tracks near Coxwell and Albert was working as a carpenter. Another son was born in 1922 whom they named Bruce.

 

Within two years Albert was an insurance agent with Mutual Life. They lived on Rhodes and Pape Avenues before renting a house at 178 Westlake Avenue in 1927. Ken probably attended Duke of Connaught and William Burgess prior to attending Grade 2 at Danforth Park for about a year. Next the Haycocks moved to 44 Firstbrook Road and Ken and his siblings probably attended Norway school. In 1929 they moved down the street to 139 Firstbrook and this was the longest they remained in any one neighbourhood in Toronto. Ken would have been at Norway for at least Grades 3 to 5. Albert shifted careers and became a salesman for Brown's Bread. Another daughter, Madeline was born in 1930.

 

In 1932 the family moved again to 97 Queensdale Avenue and the Haycock children probably attended R H McGregor school. In 1934 Albert moved the family to Simcoe, Ontario, located a few kilometres from Port Dover. Records are almost non-existent for the family in the town. Presumably Ken attended Grade 8 at a local school and continued to Simcoe High School. In 1937 another daughter, Madeleine, was born.

 

Ken was working as a grocery clerk in 1940 when he enlisted in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry on April 18, 1940. They were nicknamed The Rileys. His father and brother also enlisted in the army and his father was posted to the local basic training camp. Ken trained for the next three months and on July 23 the regiment left Halifax and landed in Gourock, Scotland on August 2. The Rileys were sent to Aldershot in southeast England. It remains today the base of the British Army and has always been essentially a military town. Beside it is about 2,700 hectares of training ground. By August 1940 the Allies had been pushed out of Europe at Dunkirk and Hitler was about to declare a blockade of the British Isles. Within weeks, air raids on London and the Battle of Britain would commence. The Allies were assembling a substantial raiding force, based around amphibious warfare.

 

The Rileys continued training in England and in spring 1942 they and several other Canadian regiments began specialized amphibious training with most of the regiments training on England's south coast. In August, the regiment boarded ships in Portsmouth harbour. Once on board, they were told that they would be part of the main landing at what were named Red and White beaches at Dieppe. The regiments joining them were the Essex Scottish Regiment, Les Fusilliers Mont-Royal, Royal Marine commandos and tanks. The RAF would provide air cover.

 

The main landing took place on August 19, 1942, half an hour after the ones on the flanks. Squadrons of RAF Hurricanes bombed Red and White beaches, laying down smoke screens for the landing troops. Between 0330 and 0340 hrs the Rileys and the Essex Scottish stormed the beach. Tanks were supposed to arrive to support the attack, but they were late. German-manned machine guns were dug into the overlooking cliffs and the Canadians suffered heavy losses. The Rileys had landed at the west end of the beach, near a large casino which was held by the Germans. They were able to take this isolated building and the surrounding pillboxes and enter the town. They engaged in vicious street fighting with bullets whizzing around them. When it was determined that they were taking more losses than they were causing, the regiment retreated to the beach, providing cover for other retreating troops. The raid took about eight hours. Ken was killed during the raid and of his regiment, 197 of the 582 who landed were killed. 174 were captured and 194 were wounded (85 of them became prisoners of war). In other words, 21 men escaped unscathed back to England.