With God by his Side

In the hell of the Western Front, a shy and unassuming middle-aged vicar from a small parish in Cumbria spent night after night in No Man’s Land, ministering to the wounded and dying, working until he dropped down into the mud with exhaustion.

Reverend Thedore Bayley Hardy was 53 years old when he went to war. Considered too old to serve in the front line, he was determined to be in the thick of the action. He had earlier trained as a stretcher bearer and knew that at least he could help in that capacity.

Joining the 8th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, in December 1916, Hardy first entered the trenches around Neuve Chapelle in January 1917. His actions were soon noted by the men around him as he worked to help the wounded, regardless of the danger around him.

One officer, Major General Bruce Williams, CO of 63rd Infantry Brigade, recalls his first experiences of Hardy and the exhaustion he was suffering. The occasion was a battalion church parade in Lestrem during January 1917:

“Mr Hardy took the service, and I firmly believe he was asleep standing when saying the psalms and prayers. He had most probably been up all night in the trenches.”

It was during the hell of the Battle of Passchendaele in July 1917 that Hardy’s efforts first received recognition. He had gone ‘over the top’ on the night of 31 July – the day the offensive began. The Adjutant of the 8th Somersets recalled:

“The night was pitch dark, the shelling the worst I have ever known, and the crying of the wounded and dying such that I shall never forget. Amid those terrible scenes that ‘Saint of God’ remained the whole time, helping bandage the wounds and carry the wounded to a dressing station some 300 to 400 yards away, which was also being badly shelled.”

The following morning, the Adjutant noticed a man lying on the ground: “It was the Dear old Padre. At first, we thought he was dead, but no. He had worked all night until absolutely exhausted and dropped down where he had been working.”

On the night of 1st/2nd August, the Lincolns and Somersets were relieved, but after one night away, Hardy returned to help the men still stranded in the mud of No Man’s Land.

COLLAPSED WITH EXHAUSTION

The ground in No Man’s Land was in such a condition that some men were buried up to their shoulders and, under intense and accurate fire, it was only possible to extricate them at night not for nothing would the name of the small village of Passchendaele become synonymous with the misery of fighting a war of attrition in a landscape of mud.

Each night for the next three nights, Hardy helped recover these men. On the third morning, he was reported missing but eventually found asleep in a wet shell hole. Yet again, he worked day and night, under fire, until collapsing

with exhaustion. Hardy, though he had a broken wrist, remained with a dying man all night and stayed with him, talking to him, encouraging him, in No Man’s Land, yards from enemy trenches, through the following day. Enduring sniper and machine-gun fire, he only left the man’s side when he died. For these actions, Reverend Hardy received the DSO.

A few weeks later, Padre Hardy’s heroics were brought to the attention of the authorities again. This time, Hardy was assisting the RAMC move injured men from the front on a light railway between Canada Street and Larch Wood tunnels. As the train passed near the notorious Hill 60, three miles south-east of Ypres, the Germans opened an “appalling” bombardment.

Instead of taking cover, Hardy remained with the wounded and for this he received the Military Cross.

Outstanding though this incident was, it would be wrong to view it as anything out of the ordinary for Hardy.

Hardy was notoriously difficult to relieve and simply remained at, or beyond, the front line which made it hard for senior officers to find him and persuade him to take a rest. The Somersets’ Sergeant Major left his personal account of Hardy’s work:

“My job was to see that the Companies in the line were supplied with rations, water etc. … and for that we used carrying parties … it was a difficult job as the ground was in such a condition, and very often men got stuck in the mud. Mr Hardy would come along and ask the time the party was going up, so that he would be able to go up with them.

“His main object in going was to help the men with their loads. Many a night has he carried up rations for a fellow who was not so able as the others. All he used to think about was helping others, never about himself …he would always remain in the dangerous places the longest, cheering everybody up as he visited each post.”

Understandably, the men around him regarded him as truly extraordinary.

BELOVED PADRE

Rossignol Wood was the scene of Hardy’s next act of remarkable act of devotion to duty. On 21 March 1918, the

Germans launched their the last-ditch offensive against the Somme front and troops were sent from Ypres to Bucquoy, including the 8th Somersets and 8th Lincolns of the 63rd Brigade.

On 3 April 1918, a counterattack was ordered against Rossignol Wood and the 63rd Brigade headed towards the enemy through heavy machine gun fire. The Lincolns, Hardy among them, achieved their first objective despite suffering a number of casualties.

As the battalion re-grouped, there was no sign of Hardy. It seemed their beloved Padre had finally taken a bullet and would not be coming back. Then, towards dusk, a small figure came out of the wood from the German lines. Hardy had spent the day comforting a wounded man within ten yards of an enemy pillbox and returned to find a volunteer to help him recover the man.

Major General Bruce Williams gathered the facts regarding Hardy’s conduct, the conclusion drawn was that Hardy deserved a VC “three times over”.

There was seemingly no end to Hardy’s courage or endurance.

FOUR SEPARATE ‘VC ACTIONS’

There was no immediate reward for Hardy, indeed the eventual VC to Hardy was as much recognition of his day-to-day conduct as for the incident in Rossignol Wood, this exemplified by his efforts in late April around Bucquoy.

The next day, Hardy was again in the thick of the action:

“When an enemy shell exploded in the middle of one of our posts, Reverend Hardy at once made his way to the spot, despite shell and trench-mortar fire which was going on at the time and set to work extricating the buried men. He succeeded in getting out one man who had been completely buried. He then set to work to extricate a second man, who was found to be dead.

“During the whole time he was digging out the men this chaplain was in great danger, not only from shell fire, but also because of the dangerous condition of the wall of the building which had been hit by the shell which buried the men.”

Hardy then read the Funeral Service in the midst of battle for the man who died.

Thus it was that Theodore Hardy was recommended for the VC for four separate actions in under a month.

Hardy, however, would not leave his men and as he wouldn’t go to London, so the King went to France to present Hardy with his VC. Sadly, his devotion to duty would cost him his life.

On 8 October 1918, the Somersets and Lincolns attacked positions south of Cambrai towards the River Selle. In the afternoon of the 10th, the 63rd brigade attacked the ridge running south from the village of Briastre. With nightfall, came a temporary halt in the advance.

The following morning, a bridge was thrown across the river and two platoons were ordered across. Needless to say, Hardy went with them. It would be his last act on the Western Front.

Wounded in the thigh, he was evacuated to No.2 Red Cross Hospital, Rouen, dying on 18 October 1918.

Just three weeks after the Reverend Hardy’s death, and three days before his 55th birthday, the First World War ended.

This very gallant chaplain was seen moving quietly amongst the men and tending the wounded, absolutely regardless of his personal safety. ” Official War Diary

(HMP) ■ The scene at an Advanced Dressing Station located at Feuchy Chapel, near Tilloy-lès-Mofflaines, on 10 April 1917. Photographed during the Battle of Arras, the opening phase of which began the day before this image was taken, the scene includes a column of wagon ambulances waiting to remove casualties. The sixth man from the left, standing in front of the canvas shelter resting against the building, is Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy.

(HMP) ■ The Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy VC, DSO, MC (20 October 1863 – 18 October 1918). One of four chaplains who have been awarded the Victoria Cross, Hardy’s medals can be seen in the Museum of Army Chaplaincy which is located at Amport House – which itself is currently the British Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre. This posthumous portrait was painted by Howard Somerville.

(HMP) ■ H.M. King George V presenting the Victoria Cross to the Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy VC, DSO, MC at the Third Army’s headquarters at Frohen-le-Grande, 9 August 1918. Padre Hardy’s daughter, Elizabeth Hardy, who was serving with the Red Cross at Dunkirk, can also be seen in the background. Chronologically, Hardy’s VC was the 978th awarded. Following her father’s death, Elizabeth received a telegram of regret and sympathy from the King.

(HMP) ■ Hardy frequently helped men carry supplies up to the front, often carrying heavy loads if he saw men struggling.

(HMP) ■ The grave of Reverend Theodore Hardy at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France. It is thought that Hardy was the most highly decorated non-combatant member of the armed forces.

(HMP) ■ The battered French village of Bucquoy pictured during April 1918. The village was occupied by the British 7th Division on 17 March 1917, and was the scene of very heavy fighting in March and April the following year. Hardy’s citation for the Victoria Cross includes references to his involvement in digging wounded men out of a collapsed building in this village during the German offensive in April 1918.

(HMP) ■ Another view of the activity at the Advanced Dressing Station at Feuchy Chapel on 10 April 1917. Here German prisoners are bringing in the wounded. Note the same shelter which can be seen on the left of the main picture below. Note the presence of Reverend Hardy peering over the shoulder of a German prisoner and a British Corporal helping carry the casualty on the stretcher.

(HMP) ■ In this photo of the Advanced Dressing Station at Feuchy Chapel, Hardy can clearly be identified. He is standing in the centre background; his clerical collar can be clearly seen. Many of the bodies in the foreground are awaiting burial – and almost certainly lie today in the Tilloy British Cemetery in Tilloy-lèsMofflaines.