Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Rifleman P. A. Hardie, 18th (County of London) Battalion (London Irish Rifles), London Regiment, who was killed in action during the Battle for High Wood on 15 September 1916

1914-15 Star (1645. Pte. P. A. Hardie. 18-Lond. R.); British War and Victory Medals (1645 Pte. P. A. Hardie. 18-Lond. R.); Memorial Plaque (Peter Albert Hardie) minor patches of staining to plaque, good very fine (4) £140-£180

Peter Albert Hardie was born in Windsor around 1891, the son of Peter and Hannah Hardie of Chancellor’s Road, Hammersmith, London. Listed in 1911 as a train checker residing in Fulham, Hardie attested for the 18th London Regiment and served in France from 9 March 1915. Present at the Battle of Loos and Action on Vimy Ridge from 21-25 May 1916, Hardie later joined the huge assault on High Wood which was proving to be one of the most significant natural obstacles on the Somme battlefield:
‘The Wood was the key to a considerable portion of the German defences and the resolute enemy defenders had, by their skilful dispositions and successful use of a concentration of machine guns and artillery, held their own against all comers. The grisly heaps of human debris which encumbered the maze of trenches in front of the Wood testified alike to the determination of the British High Command to secure the Wood and to a parallel like determination on the part of the defenders to contest every inch of ground’ (The London Irish Rifles 1/18th Battalion in the First World War, refers).

At 6.20 a.m. precisely on 15 September 1916, the British artillery barrage opened on the first objective. Amidst a varied scene of shell smoke and bright blue skies, the London Irish emerged from their trenches and charged the German lines; all along the front of High Wood the enemy machine guns opened up, their accurate fire inflicting enormous casualties. As the smoke screen melted away in the early morning breeze, the attacks of the 17th and 18th Battalions collapsed; the survivors, raking cover in shell holes doggedly engaged the enemy with their rifles, but could not hope to obtain anything like the superiority of fire against the German machine-gunners who swept the intervening ground with terrible persistence and accuracy. By nightfall, the London Irish had lost 223 all ranks, with the survivors forced to dig a new line just 200 yards in front of the Starfish (assembly) line.

Hardie was amongst those killed; he has no known grave and is commemorated upon the Thiepval Memorial, France.