BORN LONG EATON, DERBYSHIRE 1898. SON OF RICHARD CHARLES GARSIDE & MARGARET MARY GARSIDE, OF 59 ANLABY ROAD, HULL. HE HAD AN OLDER BROTHER, TROOPER, RICHARD GARSIDE, LANCER REGIMENT. BEFORE ENLISTING, HE WORKED FOR MESSRS., REDFEARN & MASON, TIMBER MERCHANTS, GREAT UNION STREET, HULL.
HE ENLISTED IN THE EAST RIDING YEOMANRY, AT HULL. HE MARRIED ELSIE MAY WILSON AT HULL, IN JANUARY 1917. THEIR HOME ADDRESS WAS ELM TREE AVENUE, PARK STREET, HULL. HE SERVED AS PRIVATE, 18233, 1ST EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. DIED AT SEA, ON 15/04/1917. AGED 19, ON HMS “ARCADIAN”. HE WAS KILLED 3 MONTH AFTER HIS MARRIAGE. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 5TH MAY 1917, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. * HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE MIKRA MEMORIAL, GREECE.
HIS DEATH WAS ALSO REPORTED IN THE HDM ON 27/04/1917, WITH CONDOLENCES FROM PARENTS, DICK & MADGE. MARY AND CILLA, AUNT ALICE, GEORGE (IN EGYPT) AND WIFE, ELSIE MAY (WILSON), WHO MOVED TO 13 PERCY STREET, HULL.
R.M.S.P. Co. Arcadian was converted into a transport during the First World War. On April 15th, 1917, Arcadian with a company of 1,335 troops and crew was proceeding from Salonika to Alexandria, and was in the southern Aegean, 26 miles N.E. of Milo.
The troops had just completed boat-drill when a German submarine UC-74 approached unseen and discharged a torpedo which inflicted such extensive damage that the vessel sank in six minutes. Fortunately the men´s recent exercise at the boats imparted steadiness and confidence and 1,058 were rescued, either through their own efforts or by the escorting destroyer. The number drowned was 277 and, had it not been for the sudden capsizing of the vessel, many more would have been saved. Those lost included 19 army officers and 214 other ranks, as well as ten naval ratings and 34 members of the crew.
A considerable amount of wreckage and spars was sucked down and this, coming to the surface with great force, killed many who were swimming in the water.
On 15th April 1917, HMT Arcadian was sunk off Melos in the Aegean Sea. Nineteen men of the draft of 43 ERY men destined to join the 1/1st ERY in Palestine were among those drowned. The regiment’s war diary notes 2nd Lt. (Richard Duncan) Ullyott and 13 men arriving on May 9th, with 19 reported drowned. In addition, Robert Bell was a former ERY man, then attached to the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and Harry Matthews may also have been with the ERY, though the evidence is ambiguous. So the total losses for the regiment on this occasion may have been 21. Though there were a couple of experienced NCOs in this group, the majority were young recruits.
