| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Sidney Hardcastle of the 20th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment was the younger brother of John Hardcastle who was killed in action on 14 May 1917 at the Battle of Arras.
Sidney was born in Huggate the 25 Nov 1898 and baptised in the parish church the 8 Jan 1899. His father, George was a farm labourer and later a shepherd, his mother Agnes nee Leake was from Sancton. They had six children. George changed employers regularly, in 1901 the family was living at Middlethorpe, Londesborough, by 1911 they had moved to Arras, near Sancton, before settling at Eske, near Tickton, living at the Red House.
The 20th Battalion of the Manchesters served in Bullemont in the Battle of Arras in May 1917 and they were later involved in the Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium. In Nov 1917, as part of 7th Division, they were sent to northern Italy. In September 1918 they were withdrawn and sent back to France. The photo of Sidney in Green’s Almanack says that he was “wounded” but it is not known exactly where, when, and how badly. Sidney was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Sidney returned to the Tickton area and the 1939 Register describes him as a “contractor’s labourer heavy worker”. In March 1921 at St Paul’s Church in the village he married local girl Elsie Horsley. They had nine children, the eldest, Gladys born in 1922 and the youngest, Dorothy, born in 1938. The Hardcastle’s home was Grey Cottage, Tickton. Sidney died in May 1966 and was buried at St Paul’s in the village on 17 May. His wife died in 1956
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |