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 Amos'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.  He sailed for Plymouth, England on 13 February 1917, on board the New Zealand Troopship Mokoia. He arrived in England on 2 May 1917, going to  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 involved in the attack on Belle Vue Spur and posted as missing on 'New Zealand's blackest day' of the war – the opening day of the 1st Battle of Passchendaele, 12 October 1917. A subsequent Court of Enquiry held on 17 November 1917 indicated that he had been killed in action.

Amos has no known grave. Consequently, his name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Belgium.

37813 Pte Amos Arthur Hardisty, 1st Bn. Otago Regiment, N.Z.E.F.