THE REVEREND THEODORE BAYLEY HARDY VC, DSO, MC,
ARMY CHAPLAINS' DEPARTMENT
18TH OCTOBER 1918 AGE 54
BURIED: ST SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN, SEINE-MARITIME, FRANCE
Theodore Hardy's inscription comes from one of the most popular passages in the bible:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth;
1 Corinthians 13:8 Revised Version.
Theodore Hardy was the most decorated army chaplain of the war. This is his memorial plaque in Carlisle Cathedral:
In memory of Theodore Bayley Hardy Vicar of Hutton Roof. Appointed C.F. Aug. 1916: Attached 8th Lincs. Regt. & 8th Somerset Lt Infantry. Awarded D.S.O. July 1917: M.C. Oct. 1917: Victoria Cross April 1918. Chaplain to the King Sept. 1918. Was Wounded Oct. 1918. Died at Rouen Oct. 18 1918.
This tablet is erected as part of a Diocesan tribute to His heroic courage, sympathetic service and spiritual labours.
It was to Hardy that Studdart Kennedy was speaking when he offered the advice I quoted for yesterday's casualty. Charmingly, after he had been awarded his Victoria Cross, Hardy is on record as asking the Assistant Chaplain-General if he could tell Studdart Kennedy that he had often wished he could thank him properly for his advice, which "more than any other in my life, has helped me in this work."
After leading what must have seemed like a charmed life, Hardy was wounded in the thigh by a machine gun bullet on 11 October 1918. He was taken to hospital where pneumonia set in and he died seven days later.