Source: Gathering Our Heroes.
Family Search: When Private Arthur Wilfred Hardcastle was born on 10 October 1898, in Ingersoll, Oxford, Ontario, Canada, his father, George Herbert Hardcastle, was 37 and his mother, Barbara Ann Aimesbury, was 34. He married Gertrude Louise Guenther on 28 June 1928, in Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He lived in Kent, Ontario, Canada in 1911. He registered for military service in 1916. In 1916, at the age of 18, his occupation is listed as labourer in Chatham, Kent, Ontario, Canada. He died on 12 August 1980, in Chatham, Kent, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 81, and was buried in Maple Leaf Cemetery, Chatham, Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada.
Condition when finally boarded for discharge.
D.C.H. Jan, 19, 1920
880588 – Pte. Hardcastle, Arthur
[Subjective]: On Aug. 28, 1918 received shrapnel wound on right leg, causing computer comminuted fracture of the lower third Tibia. Amputation with partial suture on August 30, 1918 in middle third of Tibia and Fibule. Reamputation and flap suture on Nov. 30, 1918. Wound healed without further complications.
Blown up by shell Nov. 11, 1917 at Paschaendale [sic]. Suffered severe shock. Unable to speak more than a few words for a day or so. Stammering has persisted ever since
Objective: Right Leg amputated below the knee leaving 3-1/2 inch stump. Flare are lateral. Amputation scar healed, not adherent. End of bones prominent, with a scent pad over them. Movement of stump is full. He has been supplied with satisfactory peg and artificial leg.
Specialist report attached: Report of Maj. Boyer C.A.M.C., 15-1-20 – “This man has an justipratory [sic] “tic” which is not a disability at all in the majority of his conversation. He denies speech difficulties as a child. He will be in a much better position to master this condition when he gets his discharge and civil life affairs take on a more concrete form. I would recommend his discharge and that he be made an out-patient with the S.C.R. to join a class in breathing and chest exercises which will in my opinion master his difficulty providing he sincerely works at it.” (Sgd.) L.R.R.
Trench feet Nov. 1917 to Feb. 1918. Recovered.
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 