Lance Corporal Thomas Neate Harding – Tell Them of Us

The First World War was all about loss; loss of life and loss of prospects. Landed property was lost with the death of an heir; local businesses were lost when sons did not return, and in this case, families fell on hardship with the loss of a breadwinner.

Within the records of the UK World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards 1914-1923 published on Ancestry are claims mostly made by service personnel incapacitated by their military service, and war widows. However, Thomas Henry Harding, the father of Lance Cpl. T.N. Harding, made an application declaring he was a dependant of his son.

Thomas Neate Harding was baptised on July 15, 1888 in the parish of Holy Trinity, Slad. He was the only child of Thomas Henry Harding, a labourer, and his wife Caroline.

The family moved to Argyle Street, Gorse Hill, Swindon three years after Thomas’s birth. By the time of the 1911 census both father and son were employed in the GWR Works. Thomas Henry Harding worked as a wood sawyer and 23 year old Thomas Neate Harding as a Blacksmith’s Striker.

Caroline Harding died in March 1913 and is buried in a public grave in Radnor Street Cemetery. So now father and son carried on alone at home.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 Thomas Henry Harding was about 54 years old, his son 26. Thomas Neate Harding was not one of the early volunteers to join the army. Perhaps his responsibilities at home were too great. But with the introduction of conscription in 1916 he would eventually be called up, enlisting in July 1917 with the Royal Engineers and serving with the Inland Waterways and Docks.

Thomas Neate Harding died on February 12, 1920 at the Northern Hospital, Liverpool. He was 32 years old. His father made an application to the War Office for the cost of his son’s funeral expenses.

Administration of Thomas Neate Harding’s will was granted to his father in April 1920. His effects were valued at £173 7s 1d.

Thomas Neate Harding was buried in a public grave plot number B1271. The same grave in which his mother Caroline was buried.

Lance Corporal Thomas N. Harding is commemorated on plaque in St. Barnabas Church, Gorse Hill.

First published November 3, 2022.