SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Rifleman WILLIAM HARDING.

R/39505 12th Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps.

who died, aged 23, on the 16th August 1917.

Son of Frank and Mary Harding of 25 Dixon St, Skelton, N Yorkshire.


Tyne Cot Memorial.

At the census of 1901, William, aged 7, was living at 25 Dixon St and had been born in Skelton.
His father, who worked as an Ironstone miner, came from Hutton Le Hole, N Yorks and his mother from Skelton.
He had a brother James 15, and six sisters - Jane 13, Annie 11, Ada 9, Mary 5, Frances 3 and Lena 1
James was killed in the war on th 3rd May 1917 and is remembered on the Arras Memorial.

The 12th (Service) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps was formed in Winchester on September 21st 1914 and was attached to 60th Brigade, 20th (Light) Division.
At the time of William's death the Division fought in the Third Battle of Ypres.
An offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south.
The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather.
The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele.
His body was never recovered and he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
This lists 35,000 men who have no known grave and stands at the furthest point of the Western advance in Flanders before the armistice was signed.
All around the graves of the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the World.