David Hayes: The Working-Class Officer in In Memoriam

Overview

David Hayes stands as one of the most quietly powerful figures in Alice Winn’s In Memoriam. A factory worker from Lewisham who becomes a temporary gentleman officer, Hayes embodies the war’s brutal leveling effect while never shedding the class consciousness that sets him apart from his public-school peers. His arc—from a capable, pragmatic lieutenant to a double amputee confronting a changed world—illuminates the novel’s central tensions: the cost of survival, the fragility of masculinity, and the slow, imperfect forging of bonds across class lines.

Hayes is introduced through Henry Gaunt’s letter to Ellwood (Chapter Two): a man whose ill-fitting uniform and thick accent mark him as an outsider, but whose competence earns immediate respect. Throughout the story, he functions as a moral anchor—practical, unsentimental, and fiercely loyal—yet he is also deeply scarred by the war. His journey mirrors the novel’s exploration of psychological trauma and shell shock, and his relationship with Ellwood becomes a crucible for understanding class, vulnerability, and post-war survival.

Plot Role

Hayes enters the narrative as Gaunt’s first lieutenant in the trenches of Belgium. He is the officer who shows Ellwood the horrors of the front in Chapter Six—a corpse, the squalid dugout, the casual brutality of daily life. He serves as a steady presence through the company’s revolving door of officers, witnessing the deaths of Gaunt, Sandys, and countless others. After Gaunt’s apparent death at Loos, Hayes becomes Ellwood’s closest companion in the trenches, sharing billet rooms and carrying the weight of command.

His role culminates in two key postwar scenes. In Chapter Forty-Four, Gaunt (surviving) visits Hayes in hospital, where he has lost both legs. There, Gaunt offers him a job at his father’s bank—a job Hayes initially resists on grounds of pride and class suspicion. Later, in Chapter Forty-Five, Hayes is mentioned as having accepted the position, having written to Ellwood despite his earlier reluctance. This final act signals both his survival and his uneasy integration into a world that still doesn’t fully include him.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Hayes is driven by two conflicting forces: a desire to prove his worth and an acute awareness of his place in the social hierarchy. Early evidence shows his competence—Gaunt calls him “the most terrific fighter” and notes that the men prefer taking orders from him. Yet Hayes is also deeply insecure about his background. When Ellwood’s public-school friends gather at the Somme, Hayes stands apart, arms crossed, until Roseveare awkwardly asks where he went to school—and Hayes answers “the local one in Lewisham.”

His fear of madness is a central motivation. In Chapter Seventeen, Hayes confesses to Ellwood in the middle of the night that he feels he is losing his mind. He admits, “I’m glad Henry died… I’d rather have him dead than lose his mind.” This is interpretation: Hayes equates mental collapse with a fate worse than death, a direct reflection of the novel’s themes of masculinity and vulnerability. He begs Ellwood to shoot him if he goes mad, recalling a previous officer, Carrington, who suffered a breakdown. Ellwood’s reassurance and their subsequent conversation reveal Hayes’s deep need for connection and his terror of being abandoned to his own unraveling.

Loyalty is Hayes’s defining trait. He risks his life to wrest a pistol from Ellwood when Ellwood threatens to shoot a shell-shocked soldier (Chapter Sixteen). He censors letters and protects his men. After Gaunt’s death, he keeps Gaunt’s unfinished letter to Ellwood—“My dearest, darling Sidney”—and later gives it to Ellwood, knowing the pain it will cause but also the closure it might bring. This act shows his empathy and his understanding that grief must be faced.

Chronological Arc

Hayes’s arc can be traced through key episodes:

Introduction (Chapter Two, via Gaunt’s letter): Introduced as a capable, rough-edged officer who breaks down class barriers by asking for first names. Gaunt notes his terrible uniform and thick accent, but also his effectiveness.
Early trench life (Chapter Six, Chapter Eight): Hayes becomes the seasoned guide for new arrivals. He shares a billet with Gaunt and Ellwood, witnessing their intimacy. He shows Ellwood the horrors of the front.
The loss of Gaunt (Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen): Hayes shares a drink with Gaunt before the fatal raid. Gaunt says, “To unlikely friends.” Later, Hayes is the one who tells Ellwood that Gaunt has no chance of survival. He helps Ellwood through the aftermath.
Breakdown in billets (Chapter Seventeen): Hayes experiences a severe panic attack, believing he is going mad. Ellwood talks him down, and they form a deeper bond. Hayes later jokes about it, but the episode marks a turning point—he survives, but not unchanged.
Somme reunion (Chapter Twenty-Seven): Hayes is thrust into Ellwood’s old school circle, enduring class condescension with strained politeness. Ellwood defends him, and Hayes warms slightly, showing his capacity for connection despite discomfort.
Hospital and amputation (Chapter Forty-Four): Hayes is shown in a sunny ward, both legs amputated. He is defensive, ashamed, and resistant to Gaunt’s job offer. His words—“He’d correct my spelling”—reveal the lingering class insecurity that even war cannot erase. He eventually agrees to write to Ellwood and accepts the bank position.
Post-war peace (implied through Chapter Forty-Five and Historical Note): Hayes’s acceptance of the job signals a tentative step toward a new life, though his physical and psychological wounds will remain.

Relationships

With Henry Gaunt

Hayes and Gaunt form a bond based on mutual respect rather than shared background. Gaunt is one of the first public-school men to treat Hayes as an equal, using his first name from the start. In Chapter Twelve, they share a drink and Gaunt says, “I like you too, David.” Hayes responds, “I like you, you know that?” Their friendship is rooted in the war’s leveling effect—both are men who would not have crossed paths in peacetime. Gaunt’s offer of a bank job after the war is a practical expression of that friendship.

With Sidney Ellwood

The relationship with Ellwood is more fraught. Hayes feels Ellwood looks down on him—a perception that Ellwood’s careless remarks about “respectable” accents and his privileged friends reinforce. Yet Ellwood is also the one who holds Hayes during his breakdown, who defends him to the Preshute circle, and who laughs with him over the joke “Gauntette.” Their bond is real, though Hayes resists it out of pride. The novel leaves them in a tentative peace: Hayes agrees to write to Ellwood, and Ellwood’s job offer from Gaunt’s father is a bridge between their worlds.

With John Maitland

Maitland, an older working-class officer, acts as a mentor. Gaunt’s letter notes that Maitland believes working-class officers are better in the field. Hayes is part of a small network of men who defy the class hierarchy, and Maitland’s death (mentioned in passing) deepens Hayes’s sense of loss.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Agreeing to befriend Gaunt and Ellwood: Hayes could have kept his distance, but he chooses camaraderie. This decision gives him allies who later help him survive and reintegrate.
Concealing the mission’s danger from Ellwood (Chapter Eleven): Hayes agrees with Gaunt not to tell Ellwood how lethal the prisoner-taking mission will be. The consequence is Ellwood’s unprepared grief when Gaunt is wounded.
Refusing to report Ellwood for admitting his relationship with Gaunt (Chapter Sixteen): When Ellwood drunkenly confesses, Hayes tells him to shut up and does not pursue a court-martial. This preserves Ellwood’s life and reputation.
Accepting the bank job (Chapter Forty-Four): After initial resistance—worried about his accent and the indignity of being a “proper gentleman”—Hayes agrees to work at Gaunt’s father’s bank. This decision means he will survive the war with a place in society, but it also forces him to confront the compromises of peacetime.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Hayes is a living symbol of the class divide in wartime. His uniform—too light, badly tailored—becomes a visual marker of how the war thrusts working-class men into roles for which society never prepared them. His refusal to let Ellwood call him by his first name at first mirrors the boarding-school dynamics Ellwood knows; later, his willingness to accept “David” signals trust.

Shell shock is personified in Hayes’s breakdown. His fear of madness—and his belief that death is preferable—connects directly to the novel’s arc on psychological trauma. He embodies the tension between stoicism and collapse, a theme that runs through In Memoriam.

The loss of his legs is a literal and symbolic amputation of his pre-war self. He can no longer work with his hands; he must rely on the patronage of a public-school officer. The job offer from Gaunt’s father is both salvation and a reminder of the dependency that defines his postwar existence. This echoes the novel’s exploration of escape and survival: Hayes survives, but the cost is enormous.

Questions and Answers

What is David Hayes’s social background? Hayes worked as a factory worker in Lewisham before the war. He is described by Gaunt as having a thick accent and an ill-fitting uniform, marking him as a “temporary gentleman” in the army’s class system.
Why does Hayes resist becoming friends with Ellwood? He believes Ellwood looks down on him, citing Ellwood’s comment that being called by his first name would be “untoward.” Hayes tells Gaunt that Ellwood is “too rich” and that their worlds won’t mix after the war.
How does Hayes respond to the trauma of the trenches? He experiences a severe panic attack in Chapter Seventeen, confessing to Ellwood that he fears going mad. He shows classic symptoms of what would be called shell shock: hypervigilance, nightmares, and a terror of losing control.
What job does Gaunt offer Hayes after the war, and why does Hayes initially refuse? Gaunt offers him a ground-floor office job at his father’s bank. Hayes initially refuses because he is proud and ashamed—he worries about his accent and feels that accepting would mean becoming a “proper gentleman” who has to hide where he came from.
Does Hayes ever reconcile with Ellwood? Yes, partially. Though he avoids writing to Ellwood for a time, Gaunt tells him that Ellwood respects him. By the end of Chapter Forty-Four, Hayes agrees to write to Ellwood, and later evidence confirms he has accepted the job and is in contact. The reconciliation is imperfect but real, grounded in shared survival.