Arthur Thomas Hardy

Story:
Arthur Thomas Hardy was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, on 30th May 1898 the son of Walter Hardy and Elizabeth Hardy (née Strange).  He lived most of his life in the Shaftesbury area apart from Military Service.  Initially he lived at 5 Parsons Pool, Shaftesbury, and later, by the 1911 Census, had moved with the family to 28 Bell Street, Shaftesbury.  He enlisted and joined the 1st/5th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment as a Private (Service No. 36757) and later transferring to the 4th/5th Battalion. Again, at a later date, he was transferred to the 23rd Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers (New Service No. 41115).  He served in France and Flanders where he was taken as a Prisoner of War to Germany.  On his release and discharge he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals. By the 1921 Census he was living at 42 Bell Street, Shaftesbury, with his parents and working as a Plasterer and later, by the 1939 Register, was shown to have moved to The Anchorage, Bell Street, Shaftesbury, with his widowed mother (his father having died in 1924) now described as a Golf Club Steward and a Special Constable for the Dorset Constabulary. It is noted he eventually married Margaret Mullins on 13 Dec 1941 at Sutton Mandville, Wiltshire. His death was recorded at the North Dorset Registry in the January/March Quarter of 1978.

Arthur's brother Henry (b.1888) also served in the war, with the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment and the North Staffordshire Regiment.