Amos Arthur Hardisty was killed in action on this day in 1917.
Amos Arthur Hardisty was born at Drax Abbey near Selby, Yorkshire on 19 August 1873, the son of Amos and Hannah Hardisty. His mother died in 1891.
He was an apprentice printer and then a stationer in Barnoldswick. In 1896 he married Olive Nuttall. Their son Percy was born in September 1897. Olive died in in August 1900 and Arthur's father died in 1901.
In 1906 Amos emigrated to New Zealand. In 1911 he was living at Palmerston, Manawatu-Wanganui where he married Elizabeth Cameron Taylor on 31 January 1912. Their daughter, Christina Brough, was born in September 1913 and a son, Cameron, was born in March 1916.
Amos enlisted into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 16 October 1916 and embarked for active service in February 1917 (arriving in France on 6 June 1917). A participant in the Battle of Messines, he also took part in the 3rd Battle of Ypres from the end of September.
He was posted as missing in action on 'New Zealand's blackest day' of the war – the opening day of the 1st Battle of Passchendaele, 12 October 1917, and has no known grave. Consequently, his name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Belgium.
37813 Pte Amos Arthur Hardisty, A Coy 1st Bn Otago Regiment NZEF
12 October 1917 died on this day
Research by David O'Mara
Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901 England Census. New Zealand Electoral Rolls, NZ Army enlistment records.