Edgar Charles Hardiment

Born: 6 June 1886

Died: 5 July 1916

Rank and Regiment: Private 21382 in the 8th Battalion of the The Border Regiment

Resting Place: Thiepval Memorial, France

Memorials: St. Mary the Virgin, Carleton Forehoe, United Kingdom. Edgar is also remembered on the Wicklewood memorial.

Edgar Hardiment was born on 6 June 1886 at Wicklewood. He was the son of Charles Hardiment and Emma Caroline (nee Bales). He was one of nine children of Charles and Emma, four of whom had died by the time of the 1911 Census. Charles appears to have been a man of parts; in the record of Edgar’s baptism he is described as a brickmaker, in the 1891 Census he is an agricultural labourer, in 1901 he is a carter on a farm and by 1911 he is working as a woodman. Edgar was baptised at Wicklewood on 6 March 1887.

Edgar worked as an agricultural labourer. He married Maud Emily Thirtle at Carleton Forehoe on 14 March 1908. They had three children, Mabel, who lived to be 75, Dora who died aged 20 and Nelson who died aged 30.

Edgar enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment at Norwich on 1 February 1915, his original service number being 18732. We read from his enlistment papers, which survive, that he was 5 ft 4½ in tall and weighed 125 lb (8st 13 lb). He was transferred to the Border Regiment on 9 November 1915, initially to the 10th Battalion but then to the 8th. He was posted to France in December 1915, embarking at Folkestone on 29 December and arriving at Etaples on 30 December.

He was reported missing in action on 5 July 1916. He was subsequently presumed to have been killed. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and on the War Memorial at Carleton Forehoe.

His effects amounting to £2 5s 4d were paid out to his widow, together with a War Gratuity of £6.

Maud never remarried. In 1939, she was still living in Carleton Forehoe, with Nelson living at home with her. She died in 1964 and is buried at Carleton Forehoe.