ARTHUR JAMES HARDWICK
Image from the Suffolk Chronicle & Mercury – 1918.
Born: 7th March 1898, Ipswich.
Baptised: 5th June 1898, at All Saints Church, Ipswich – family home at 5, Surbiton Road, Ipswich.
Died: 5th September 1918; age: 29; KiA.
E.A.D.T. – Tuesday, 17th September 1918 – Mrs. Hardwick, of 28, Regent Street, Ipswich (whose husband is at present in France), has received a letter from the chaplain informing her of the death of her eldest son, Lance Corporal Arthur James Hardwick, Cambridgeshire Regiment. He was 20 years of age and had been in France for nearly two years.
Residence: 28, Regent Street, Ipswich.
Occupation: with Mr. Thomas Edward Callander, a Family Grocer, Wine, Spirit, & Beer Merchant, of 15 & 17, Brook Street, Ipswich.
Enlistment Location: Ipswich; Date: January 1915.
Service: Went to France in March, 1917.
Rank: Lance Corporal; Service Number: 200838.
Regiment: Cambridgeshire Regiment, 1st/1st Battalion.
Formerly 3123, Suffolk Regiment.
Medals Awarded: Victory & British War.
In August 1919, the body was exhumed, identified by a cross marking the grave, and reburied at Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension.
Grave Reference:
III.M.38.
Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension,
Somme,
France.
Nephew & stepson to WILLIAM HARDWICK and stepbrother to STANLEY WILLIAM HARDWICK.
CENSUS
1901 6, The Terrace, Willesden, Middlesex.
Arthur was 3 years old and living with his parents & sisters.
Arthur James Hardwick, 27, a Carpenter, born Ipswich.
Bessie Frances Hardwick (nee Pearson), 24, born St. Helen’s, Ipswich.
Margaret Esther Emily Hardwick, 4, born Ipswich.
May Bessie E. Hardwick, 2, born Ipswich.
Lilian Victoria Hardwick, 2 months, born Willesden, Middlesex.
Between the years 1901 – 1904 Arthur’s father Arthur James Hardwick and his sisters Margaret, May & Lily died in Hendon, Middlesex. Lily and May in 1901, Margaret and Arthur in 1902.
In August 1902, at Holy Trinity Church, Kilburn, his mother Bessie married her late husband’s brother, 24 year old, William Hardwick, a Bricklayer. Bessie and William had 9 children. William Hardwick also died in the war on the 3rd October 1918, France.
1911 7, Alverstone Road, Manor Park, Essex.
Arthur was 14 years old and living with his mother, uncle/stepfather & stepsiblings.
William Hardwick, 33, a Bricklayer’s Labourer, born Ipswich.
Bessie, 34.
Bessie Florence Hardwick, 8, born St. John’s, Ipswich.
Ethel Maud Hardwick, 6, born Ipswich.
Stanley William Hardwick, 5, born St. John’s, Ipswich.
William Edward Hardwick, 3, born St. John’s, Ipswich.
Dorothy May Hardwick, 2, born St. Matthew’s, Ipswich.
Soldiers’ Effects to Bessie Frances Hardwick – mother.
Arthur’s stepbrother, 39 year old, Stanley William Hardwick died during the Second World War as a Japanese POW on the 12th September 1944, aboard the HELL SHIP ‘Kachidoki Maru’ when the Japanese ship (used for carrying prisoners and troops to Japan) was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S.S. ‘Pampanito.’ Stanley was ranked a Warrant Officer Class II (Company Sergeant Major), service number 1669037, for the Royal Norfolk Regiment, 6th Battalion. Stanley’s final resting place is unknown and he is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial.
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