Norman Harris was the second son of William Birbeck and Kathleen Harris of the White House, Hayes.  He was sent to Osborne Naval College at the age of 11 and later to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. On the outbreak of war in 1914 his parents received a telegram saying ‘we are mobilised’. Short of naval officers, the eldest boys from the college were made midshipmen. The ship to which he was posted, HMS Bulwark, was loading ammunition at its base in Sheerness when a huge explosion destroyed it.  Norman Harris was killed. He was just 16 years old and became the youngest of the Hayes casualties in the First World War.