| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information
Ernest was born in Beverley in 1882, the eldest child of Edward Hardy (1840-1903), from Foxholes, Driffield and his second wife, Mary (nee Binnington), who married in Hull in 1881. They had seven children, plus two children from Mary's first marriage to William Brusby of Beverley.
Ernest's father, a wood sawyer, married his first wife, Mary Smithson, in Beverley in 1860. She died in 1880. They had had twelve children.
Ernest was brought up at 7 Minster Terrace, Minstermoorgate, Beverley then 40 Keldgate became the family home. In the 1901 census Ernest was recorded as being a "shovel engineer" at a local tanyard. However, by the time of the 1911 census Ernest was working at the Cook, Welton and Gemmel shipyard on Grovehill Road. He was employed as a plater's labourer/helper. Ernest was unmarried.
Before the war Ernest had served in the Territorial Army, serving as a private in the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. Large numbers of Beverley men also served in the 5th who were nicknamed the "Beverley Terriers". Upon the outbreak of war he gave his permission to be posted abroad and on 15 Apr 1915 he arrived in France to join the BEF. The 5th, part of 50th Division and 150th Brigade went straight into action in Belgium, in the Battle of St Julien in the vicinity of Ypres. The 5th stayed in Belgium in 1915 but went on to France in 1916. They took part in the Battle of Flers/Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme. On 17 Sep 1916 an attack began on German trenches near to Martinpuich. Ernest was posted as missing, "presumed dead". His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme.
Ernest was awarded the War and Victory Medal as well as the 1915 Star. He is remembered on the Hengate Memorial and on the Keldgate Street Shrine. |