New Ale Launched

It is one of four real ales in the pub and 10p from every pint is donated to the memorial fund.

Landlord John Brice said: ‘William Hackett was a real hero. His VC is at the Royal Engineers Museum just around the corner so we feel we have a strong connection with him.’

It is hoped that several local landlords in the Medway Towns will support the campaign and also sell the special ale.

Hackett was one of 1,516 ‘moles’ who died during the conflict. Their job was twofold, to tunnel under ‘No Man’s Land’ to lay a mine charge beneath the German trenches, and also to protect their own line from being undermined by fighting a game of underground cat and mouse.

In June 1916, William Hackett and four other men were working 40 feet beneath ‘No Man’s Land’ near Givenchy in French Flanders when a nearby German explosion caused part of the gallery to collapse.

All five were trapped but a rescue party eventually reached them after frantically digging an escape hole through the earth and broken timbers.

William Hackett helped three men to safety but refused to leave before the last of his colleagues, who was badly injured, was removed. He famously said: “I am a Tunneller. I must look after the others first.”

Hackett and Collins waited for four days. Eventually, despite the best efforts of the rescuers, the tunnel and shaft both collapsed entombing the men in their cramped burrow. William Hackett could have escaped several times but chose to stay.

Hackett left a wife, Alice, and two children - a son and a daughter. On the 29th of November 1916 Alice received her husband’s posthumous VC from George V at Buckingham Palace.

In 1966 her daughter Mrs Mary Hopkins, donated her father’s medal to the Royal Engineers’ Museum where it is still on display today.