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this story was gathered and submitted to the WW2 Peoples War by Oliver Murphy

John Hayes S.J.
Chaplain, 4th Class,
Royal Army Chaplains’ Dept
Died 21 January 1945

John Hayes was the born on 15 February 1909, the son of Michael and Agnes Hayes of Limerick. He was educated by the Jesuits at The Crescent College in Limerick city. He joined the Jesuits in September 1925, starting his noviciate at Tullabeg. He taught at Belvedere College, Dublin, from 1934 until 1936 as a scholastic.

In July 1941, John Hayes was appointed as a chaplain to the British Army, and was sent to England. He enjoyed the work, feeling (in his own words) ‘at home here’ and, two years later, ‘still enthusiastic’. During those two years he took final vows.

In May 1943 he sent by sea to India. He loved the life on board the overcrowded ship. It was far from the rather stifled life of an obedient Jesuit he had led in Ireland. He wrote to his provincial in Gardiner Street:

So far life has been one glad sweet song - a round of deck quoits, boxing, dancing, bands and music of every description, classes, talks and what not. Of course I haven’t plunged into all these amusements. On Ash Wednesday we used ashes made from cabbage leaves. I hope someone remembered to bless them.…

He loved life in India too:

…crowds, colours, creeds, saris, headgear, beggars, holy men in all their nakedness and paint, high-hatted Parsis, …everlasting sun, dirt, fleas, bugs, and some mosquitoes, Indian clergy, palm trees, water buffaloes like slow motion in action, bullock-drawn carts, most people on the scrounge…very, very interesting to one beginning to see the world at 34.

He lived in harmony with people of other religions. He shared accommodation and a car with his fellow-chaplains of the Church of England. They said grace before meals in the soldiers mess on alternate days. On 11 November 1943 he wore his first poppy and later that month met the only Jewish chaplain in India. He even buried a Baptist ‘thinking he was a Catholic since he had rosary beads.’ His attitude had softened from when (back in England) he had written that a few Catholics who were ‘thinking of becoming C of E have been gently but firmly led back from the abyss.’

The Japanese had invaded Burma in January 1942, meeting only sporadic resistance from British Forces, who eventually (after a prolonged retreat, accompanied by huge losses) withdrew to India. Two campaigns were launched by the British Forces to regain Burma, but both failed. In response, the Japanese made two unsuccessful attempts to take India, in 1943 and again in 1944.

While the Japanese were still engaged in their second campaign in India, the Allies launched ‘Operation Thursday’ inside Burma in March 1944. John Hayes moved into Burma when ‘Operation Thursday’ began. Airfields and strongholds were established behind Japanese lines. The Japanese resistance began to dwindle, as their supplies ran out. Many of them starved to death.

The Allied forces (British, Indian, West African, US and Chinese forces) now advanced on ‘The Road to Mandalay’, helped by frequent air-drops of supplies. Hayes described one incident:

I buried a Catholic Corporal Kelly. He lay dead 30 paces from the railway. 10 yards away a Jap sat - his back to Kelly - dead with his head resting on his knees. While the grave was being prepared the moaning of a dying Jap was heard 40 paces away. I baptised him conditionally. He died 15 minutes later. I suspect the stretcher-bearers put him out of his pain. His eyes were swarming with insects, his mouth likewise. I was so thoroughly affected by his suffering that I could hardly carry out the burial of Cpl Kelly for tears.

Hayes admired the Japanese:

The Jap has displayed great heroism despite our dive-bombers and heavy guns (to which he has no reply in kind) he has stood his ground with sublime courage. I feel somehow that God will reward this enormous spirit of self-dedication. I find it an inspiration. The effect of actual work during action is terrific. One feels ready to sacrifice everything to save a single soul.

John Hayes did, in the end, sacrifice everything. On 28 December 1944 he contracted typhus and his condition got progressively worse. By 12 January 1945, a nurse in the field hospital wrote, ‘He is still seriously ill. But I hope there will be more cheerful news soon.’ Hayes asked for, and received, the Last Rites. On 18 January, pneumonia set in and there was now no hope of recovery. He received the Holy Viaticum daily, but could not receive Holy Communion, as his throat had swollen so much that he could not swallow. During the last week of his life, he couldn’t speak, but was fully alert.

Fr George Hickson, a fellow-chaplain, described his last moments: ‘He passed away very peacefully at 8.55 in the morning of Sunday 21/1/45 just as I was concluding a Mass which I offered for him.’

The work done by John Hayes as a chaplain was described in a letter to the Rector of Belvedere from Captain William A Ward (who himself attended Belvedere from 1923 until 1931) of the 36th Division:

Dear Fr. Rector,
As an old Belvederian I feel it my duty to give you the sad news of the death of an old member of the staff at Belvedere. I refer to the late Fr. John Hayes S.J. Fr Hayes died of typhus at Katha on the Irrawaddy in Central Burma on January 21st, 1945. He was our chaplain here in the 16th Division, and a more likeable man one would find it hard to meet. He was loved by all, from our G.O.C., General Festing, who was a Catholic, to the most humble Indian.

He joined us at Poona in 1943, and came with the Division to the Arakan early last year, and later flew in with us on our present operation. To one and all he was known as Battling Hayes, utterly devoid of any fear. It was only on the express order of General Festing that he took his batman to act as escort when on his rounds [A ‘batman’ is a man-servant]. No matter where one went, more especially in the height of battle, there would one find Fr. Hayes, in his peculiar dress: Ghurka hat, battle-dress blouse and blue rugger shorts. It was common to see him walking along a road known to be infested with the enemy, without any protection of any kind, happy in the thought that he was doing his job.

The highest praise I can pay Fr. Hayes, and in this our present chaplain, Fr. Clancy from Clare, agrees with me, is that he reminded me very much of the late Fr. Willie Doyle. Nothing mattered: monsoon, rain, heat, disease, the enemy: his one thought was to be among his flock, doing all he could to help them. Nothing was too much trouble, and the further forward a Unit was, the greater his delight in going forward to celebrate Mass.

By his death all the Catholics of his Division, and many of the Protestants, have lost a great friend and the finest chaplain one could wish to have…

Major General Festing himself wrote that ‘Fr. Hayes was the exemplification of all that a Catholic Priest and an army chaplain should be. He was a tireless worker, and if any man worked himself to death, it was he. … He was an undoubted saint.’

John Hayes SJ was only 36 years of age when he died. He is buried in grave 7A F 24 at Taukkyan War Cemetery outside Yangon (formerly Rangoon) in Burma. In his last letter to the Provincial a few weeks before his death, he wrote:

I still thoroughly enjoy the army and don’t regret volunteering for it. There are quite a number of striking consolations one would not have, I imagine, under more normal conditions.
Asking your prayers
John Hayes

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