PRIVATE 266853 ROBERT HARDISTY 1/6th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


PRIVATE 266853 ROBERT HARDISTY 1/6th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 2nd SEPTEMBER 1917 AGED 37


Born in Skipton in 1881, Bob Hardisty came to live in Ilkley when he married Jennie Hobson in 1901. Initially, the couple lived in a cottage behind the Star public house on Leeds Road, but later moved to a terraced house at 29, East Parade. A joiner by trade, Bob Hardisty was also the caretaker at the PSA (Pleasant Sunday Afternoon) Band who practiced in a hut near to where Bob lived on East Parade.


In the summer of 1915 Bob enlisted into the 1/6th West Riding Regiment and after training was sent to France in mid 1916. Perhaps because of his age instead of remaining in the trenches he was attached to a Royal Engineers unit.

On the 2nd September 1917 Bob Hardisty was was with his unit in the coastal town of Dunkirk some distance behind the front line. Along with his colleagues he was billeted in a house in the town when the Germans launched an air raid. Bob's house took a direct hit which demolished the building killing several men. Dug from the rubble of the building Bob was barely alive when placed into an ambulance and rushed to a nearby hospital run by the Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps. However, upon arrival he was found to be dead. One of Bob's friends Corporal J Haigh wrote to his distraught wife to say ".... how much we miss Bob whose disposition was such as to win everyone's esteem and admiration" .

The death of Private Robert Hardisty left his wife, Jennie, a widow and six daughters between the ages of 1 and 16 years fatherless. Today he lies in the British Military Cemetery at Dunkirk Town and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.





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