THEODORE BAYLEY HARDY VC DSO MC A Reluctant Hero

In 1916, at the age of fifty four, a slight, short sighted, unassuming country vicar and local school master became an Army Chaplain. Theodore Bayley Hardy was destined to become the most decorated non-combatant in the First World War. He was to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the D.S.O., and the M.C. By day he performed the usual priestly and chaplaincy tasks but by night he would work the trenches dropping in with his inimitable “It’s only me!” to bring comfort and moral and spiritual support in the nightmare of wars. On 10 October 1918, Hardy was hit by machine gun fire, as the Lincolns were crossing the river Selle by night. The first soldiers to reach Hardy remembered him saying quietly: ‘I’ve been hit. I’m sorry to be a nuisance.’ Hardy died on 18 October, three days before his 55th birthday and less than four weeks before the Armistice.