Rev'd Theodore Bayley Hardy VC, DSO, MC

“THE REVD. THEODORE BAYLEY HARDY, VC, DSO, MC The Revd. Theodore Bayley Hardy, V.C., DSO, MC was a temporary Chaplain 4th class and Chaplain to the King. He was born at Barnfield House, Southernhay, Exeter, on 20th October 1863, the son of George and Sarah Hardy. The house subsequently became a preparatory school for young gentlemen, and was run by his then widowed mother. Following this, it became the YMCA and is now offices …. Hardy was ordained on the 18th December 1898, aged 34, and was combining his careers as a schoolmaster with duties as a curate. Following his wife’s illness, he had to give up teaching and became the rector of Hutton Roof, near Kirby Lonsdale in Westmoreland. His wife died in June 1914 and it was only months later that Europe was plunged into war. His two children, William and Elizabeth, were following their own careers and Hardy felt he must now join the Army and take his place in this war. Time after time he applied to the Chaplaincy Department, but he was turned down as too old, he was fifty-one. His persistence finally paid off and he was accepted in the summer of 1916 in the rank of Captain, Temporary Chaplain 4th Class. Hardy subsequently became the chaplain of the 8th Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment and The 8th Battalion The Somersets. These two Battalions served alongside each other across the Western Front from Ypres to the Somme throughout the period 1916 to 1918. It was during this period, Hardy, by his dogged determination to be with the soldiers at the front, proved to be a shining example of courage, humanity, bravery and loyalty to these men that saw him awarded a Distinguished Service Order on 31st July 1917, followed by a Military Cross on 4th October 1917 and finally his Victoria Cross at Rossingal Wood in the Somme in April 1918. Hardy was wounded in action whilst crossing a footbridge accompanying a fighting patrol of the 8th Somersets on 8th October 1918 on the Selle River near Cambrai. He was evacuated to No. 2 Red Cross Hospital at Rouen and died on the 18th October 1918; three weeks later the war was over.”