Captain & Adjutant Richard Luard Hardy
8th Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps
26th August 1917
Plot Reference - Sp.Mem.A.3.
Born in Witham Essex in 1891.He was baptised on 01/02/1891.
His parents were Richard Gillies Hardy (1852-01/06/1923)
and Charlotte Annie Luard(1859-23/06/1940).
They were married in Bombay India on 01/11/1887.
Richard had 3 sisters,Theodora Madeleine
(1889-17/04/1978),Marjorie Enid(1892-1924)
and Amy Charlotte(1893-1978).
Richards father worked for the Indian Civil Service and the family
lived out in India.Richard was sent to school back in England and in the 1911 census,he is recorded as being a student boarder,staying at the Malvern View Hotel,Cleeve Hill,Woodmancote,Gloucester.
I could find no record of his place or date of enlistment,but his disembarkation into France was on 04/06/1916.
He was killed whilst leading his men in a counter attack against the Germans,who had broken through the battalion's defences in the Inverness Copse area of the Ypres salient.
At the time of his death,his family had moved back to England and were living at "Esmond" 2 College Lawn,Cheltenham. They later moved to "The Hurst" Church Crookham,Hampshire.
In his will he left effects of £345 7s 5d(worth today £27,105.09)
to his father.
He was also the grandson of
Admiral Sir William Garnham Luard KCB, Legion of Honour,JP.