Hardisty Family Tree

The 1881 Census reads as follows:
12 Mill Lane, Skipton, Yorks
Robert Head M 27 Skipton
Sarah Ann Wife F 24 Fewston
Robert Son M 6 months Skipton

The 1891 Census reads as follows:
10 New Bridge Street, Skipton, Yorks

Robert Head M 35 Blacksmith Skipton
Sarah Ann Wife F 34
Robert Son M 10 Skipton
George H. Son M 6 Skipton
Female Dau F 2 Skipton

Robert died of wounds sustained during WWI. He served with the 1/6thBattalion West Riding TF and his regimental number was 266853. A searchat the PRO resulted negative with regards to a French death certificate.
He was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal and is shownin the role of honour under 0/2/101 B22 4072.
It is not known whether any further papers regarding Robert's servicesurvived the Blitz of WWII when a large proportion of records weredestroyed by enemy bombing. Any further information regarding Robert isnot due to be published until the Autumn of 2003.

Taken from "Cravens Part in the Great War":
"Private Robert Hardisty, Duke of Well's Regt., son of the late Mr. Robert
Hardisty, Blacksmith, Skipton, died of wounds 2nd September, 1917. Aged36
years."

Museum
Bankfield Museum, Akroyd Park, Halifax, West Yorkshire

OBITUARY
Pte. Robert Hardisty, West Ridings.
Official news has also been received of the death from wounds of a formerwell-known Skiptonian in the person of Pte. Robert Hardisty, West RidingRegiment, one of the three solider sons of the late Mr. Robert Hardisty,blacksmith, Craven Terrace, Skipton. Deceased had lived at Ilkley forthe past sixteen or seventeen years and leaves a wife and six children.On Wednesday of last week, his wife, who lives at 29, North Parade,Ilkley, received a letter from him stating that he was all right onSeptember 2nd, but on the evening of the same day she received a telegramfrom Queen Alexandra's Red Cross Hospital, France, to the effect that hehad died on September 2nd from wounds received in action. Later she wasinformed by the War Office that her husband had died from a gunshot wondin the thigh.
Pte. Hardisty, who was a nephew of Mrs. Maudsley, Bank Cottage, OtleyStreet, Skipton , and also a nephew of the late Mr. Charles Hardisty ofBrook Street, Skipton, was 36 years of age, and enlisted about two yearsago. He had been at the Front about eighteen months. He served hisapprenticeship with Mr. Harold Roberts, joiner, Skipton and as indicated,subsequently went to Ilkley where in addition to following his trade, hewas the caretaker for eleven years of the P.S.A. rooms. When living atSkipton he attended the Parish Church. The other two brothers in theArmy are Corporal George Herbert Hardisty with the Royal Engineers, andPte. Charles Hardisty with the West Ridings. The former has beenrecommended for the Military Medal.

ROLL OF HONOUR
Hardisty, Sept. 2, 1917, died from wounds received in action on theWestern Front, Pte. Robert Hardisty, West Riding Regiment, son of thelate Mr. Robert Hardisty, Blacksmith, Craven Terrace, aged 36 years.

The following is from the www.cwgc.org site:

Private
266853
1st/6th Bn., Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regt.)

Dunkirk Town Cemetery is at the south-eastern corner of the town ofDunkirk, immediately south of the canal and on the road to Veurne(Furnes) in Belgium. On entering the cemetery through the columns of theDunkirk Memorial, two Commonwealth war graves sections will be seen:Plots IV and V from the First World War and Plots I and II from theSecond World War. There is also a further First World War section (PlotsI, II and III) in the main part of the cemetery to the right of the mainentrance.

Dunkirk witnessed the landing of the British Expeditionary Force inSeptember and October 1914. Throughout the First World War it was aseaplane base and later an American Naval Air Service base. The town wasalso a French hospital centre and the 8th Canadian Stationary Hospitalwas there from November 1918 to April 1919. Although an estimated 7,500shells and bombs fell on the town during the war, ship building and otherport activities continued. During the Second World War, Dunkirk was thescene of the historic evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force fromFrance in May 1940. DUNKIRK TOWN CEMETERY contains 460 Commonwealthburials of the First World War, ten of them unidentified. The graves aresituated in Plots 1 to 3 in the public part of the cemetery to the rightof the main entrance, and in Plots 4 and 5 of the Commonwealth War Gravessection adjacent to the Dunkirk Memorial. Of the 793 Second World Warburials, 213 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 58soldiers known to be buried among them. These graves are in Plots 1 and 2of the section by the Dunkirk Memorial. There are also Czech, Norwegianand Polish war graves within the Commonwealth section, and war graves ofother nationalities will be found elsewhere within the cemetery. TheDUNKIRK MEMORIAL stands a the entrance to the Commonwealth War Gravessection of Dunkirk Town Cemetery. It commemorates more than 4,500casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the campaign of1939-40 and who have no known grave. The memorial was designed by PhilipHepworth. The engraved glass panel depicting the evacuation was by JohnHutton.