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.  By 1911 he was living with the family at 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 transferred to the 23rd Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers (Service No. 41115).  He served in France and Flanders and 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 by the 1939 Register was shown to be living at The Anchorage, Bell Street, Shaftesbury, with his widowed mother and described as a Golf Club Steward and a Special Constable for the Dorset Constabulary. He died locally in 1978 having remained single throughout his life.

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