Walter Hazell was the only son of Wilberforce Ernest Hazell and the Hon. Letitia Margaret Borthwick. His father was an architect and they were living in Woburn Square, WC2 at the time of his birth.
His paternal grandfather of Walton Grange, Aylesbury who had been the Liberal MP for Leicester, was a social reformer and the author of pamphlets on social questions. The Hazells had made their money in the Aylesbury printing firm of Hazell, Watson & Viney and under his inspiration, an employee sick fund was introduced in 1874, the first of many such welfare schemes which won the company a reputation as an enlightened employer. His maternal grandfather was Sir Thomas Borthwick 1st Bt.
Walter was educated at Harrow from 1923 until 1928 and matriculated in 1929. After graduating, he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple.
In 1936, along with E Daly Lewis, he won the Captain’s Prize of the Bar Golfing Society held at Royal St, George’s and in 1939; he won the Barristers' Benevolent Association Challenge Cup at Rye.
He wrote “Pensions, You & Your Family”
He was Gazetted on 16 September 1940, initially joining the Royal Engineers. He transferred to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and held the rank of Captain in the 1st Battalion
He was killed on 16 July 1944 in Normandy and is buried at Brouay War Cemetery Plot. III. E. 2.
In the newspaper notice of his death, his parents living at 11 Montagu Square, London, requested “No letters”.