Hagan, William Becher

Born February 12, 1898, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Son of Oliver and Josephine Fitch Hagan. Home, Brookline, Massachusetts. Educated Huntington and Stone Schools, Brookline, and Phillips Academy, Andover, Class of 1917. Joined American Field Service, May 26, 1917; attached Section Twelve until October 31, 1917. Returned to America. Enlisted Royal Air Force, Canada. Died May 11, 1918, as Cadet, of pneumonia, at Toronto, Canada. Buried Brookline, Massachusetts.

AT Arthur's Court, Sir Percival was styled the Gentle Knight. If ever modern knight deserved the name it was William Becker Hagan. His life, crowded as it was with interests and with deeds, is an unsullied record of uprightness and chivalry, the pages of which one turns with reverence.

At Huntington School, though slender, " Bill" was prominent in athletics as a member of the baseball, football, and hockey teams, and in his senior year as captain of the latter two, in addition to which remarkable record, he stood high in scholarship, winning final honors in three subjects. At Stone School where he spent a year, he captained the baseball team, and at Andover in 1917, he was a member of the hockey team. During this period he also played on the Boston Hockey Club team which was rated among the best in the country. His successful athletic career which might have spoiled a lesser man, only resulted in bringing into bolder relief his modesty, his thoughtfulness, and his good sportsmanship. He was a good loser and a better winner. His first thought after a game was to give a cheerful word to the losers, whether they were his own team-mates or his opponents. He was a gentleman always, and a clean hard fighter.

He left Andover to enter the American Field Service on May 26, 1917, and was sent out to Section Twelve, which was working in Champagne. He wrote often to his father, toward whom he felt a tenderness and devotion that is one of the most beautiful things in his character, displaying rather unusual powers of description. He saw the strife about him clearly and was keenly alive to its meaning, but he did not lose his healthy, boyish point of view. He had a horror of exaggeration, and his letters are free from the slightest taint of heroics.

On August 13th, just before the Section moved up to a particularly active and dangerous sector, he wrote a letter which was to be sent to his " Dad" in the event of his death. It is too personal and sacred to quote, save one small passage that tells us a little of the quality of the thoughts that came so naturally to him.

"If my time comes before yours, don't worry, Dad, just feel proud that you are the father of a son who gave his life willingly for this great country, France."

"Bill" returned to the United States at the conclusion ,of his six months' service and after vainly trying to enlist in American Aviation, he entered the Royal Air Force in Canada. Before his training was completed, he fell ill with influenza closely followed by pneumonia, and on May 11, 1918, he died with a smile on his lips and the peace of God in his heart.

He used to ask his nurse to read the Lord's prayer with him every night. She wrote that "he knew he was dying and almost to the end he was conscious; but he had no fear . . . . . the only thing was, he was sorry to leave now when there was so much to be done."

"The afternoon before he passed away," wrote his chaplain, Captain W. G. White, "he so cheerfully looked up to me and said, 'Apart from the separation of friends for a season, what difference does it make ? "' Later, with utter forgetfulness of self, when he saw that his nurse was crying he said gently, " Sister, don't worry about me. I'm all right and everyone is so good." Earlier that day she had given him some flowers to which was attached this verse, " He will keep thee in the Shadow of His Wings." He read it and whispered, looking into the mysterious future with calm eyes and with the faith born of his manner of life of purity,--- a faith that we know was so well founded---, "That's great, Sister, He shall take care of me!"

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921