Monday 31 December 2012

A Kew Gardener In The Queen's Westminsters.

British War Medal 1914 - 1920.
Victory Medal.
George VI  Special Constabulary Long Service Medal.
3526 A. Cpl. M. Vardy, 16th London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles).

Maurice Vardy was born in 1892 in  the parish of Norton in Ecclesall Bierlow, one of the six 'townships' making up the old Parish of Sheffield. He was the second of eight children born to John Vardy, a  gardener, and his wife, Ellen. The 1911 Census records the family as residing at Brompton Road, Northallerton, and Maurice is described as an 18 year old gardener, clearly following in his father's footsteps. The outbreak of the First World War found him as a student at Kew Gardens in London. Like many others at Kew, he enlisted in the ranks of the 16th London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) and saw overseas service with the 2/16th Battalion in France and Palestine. Returning to Kew after the war, he would stay there till 1920 until finding employment with the Colonial Service.

In March 1920, Maurice Vardy and his wife travelled to Grenada, where Maurice's father had a government post. Here he worked as the Assistant Superintendent of Agriculture. In 1921, Maurice was transferred to the Gold Coast, where he took up the post of Supervisor of Fruit & Vegetable Farms. Later he worked in Sierra Leone as the head of the Fruit Experimental Station at Newton, near Freetown. In 1932, his wife's ill health necessitated a return to the United Kingdom, where he set up a market garden which he ran until he retired at the age of 70. Maurice Vardy passed away at the age of 86, his death being registered at Darlington, Yorkshire in 1978.

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