Born at Harkberry, near Maidstone, Kent.
Enlisted into the 3rd Light Dragoons at Maidstone on the 17th of December 1850. No Regimental number was allocated and no other enlistment details are shown.
Transferred to the 15th Hussars on the 1st of August 1852. Regimental No. 1710.
Embarked for India on the 28th of August 1852 and returned to England aboard the H.T. "Earl of Hardwick" and arriving at Chatham on the 31st of June 1854..
Volunteered into the 4th Light Dragoons on the 1st of November 1854.
(A letter exists which was sent from the War Office addressed to Lord George Paget at No. 38 St. James's Place, London, giving him approval to "select a Trooper of the 4th Light Dragoons for the purpose of accompanying your Lordship to the Crimea in the capacity of Batman, and that passage had been arranged for both your Lordship and he aboard the H.M.S "Princess Royal" from Devonport...." (This was the not the ship on which Lord Paget eventually travelled out to the Crimea.)
Embarked for the Crimea on the 3rd of December 1854 and joined the regiment, with Lord George Paget. This would have been for the latter's second visit to the Crimea, At Scutari from the 6th of January 1855 he was sent to join the regiment on the 19th of January.
Died, "In the Crimea", on the 7th of June 1855.
Next of kin: Eliza Lane (relationship not given), living at Sidcup, Kent.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
A memorial of wood or stone was erected to him in the 4th Light Dragoons Cemetery on the road between Kadikoi and Karani and in 1856 and bore the inscription, "To the memory of W. Haywood. IV L.D."