2nd LIEUTENANT ALAN HERBERT HARDY, ROYAL FLYING CORPS.


2nd LIEUTENANT ALAN HERBERT HARDY, ROYAL FLYING CORPS. KILLED IN A FLYING ACCIDENT 14TH OCTOBER 1915


Alan Herbert Hardy's family were well known in the Bradford area as they owned the enormous iron works which was located in the south of the city. They also had many family conections in Ilkley and it appears that Alan spent summers here in the town. The wealth created by the iron works enabled the Hardy’s to purchase a country estates in the south of England and Alan Hardy's grandfather bought Chilham Castle in Kent along with its 3000 acres of farmland, 14 farms and parish church.


Alan Hardy was born at the Castle in 1894, educated at Eastbourne College, Dorset and Oxford University, where he won a 'blue' for lawn tennis. At the outbreak of the war he was granted a commission in The Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles. Alan's father, who had recently died, was colonel of the regiment which was a territorial unit popular with farmers and landed gentry from the county. The regiment was not initially posted overseas and was used to guard the coast of Kent. However, in 1915 the East Kent Mounted Rifles were to be sent to the Middle East. At about this time Alan Hardy transferred to the recently formed Royal Flying Corps to train as a pilot. Posted to a training base at Montrose, Scotland he qualified as a pilot on 21st September.

On 13th October a fellow flyer from the base, Captain Alleyne Arkwright, took off in a Maurice Farnham bi-plane, but a few minutes into the flight, the plane developed problems and was forced to land in a field next to Glamis Castle. A propeller problem was diagnosed and Alan Hardy and a mechanic set off to assist Captain Arkwright. The three men stayed on the Glamis Estate overnight intending to return to Montrose the following day. Early the following morning the mechanic replaced the propeller and Arkwright took off with Alan as passenger. The plane reached an altitude of about 400 feet when it was seen by witnesses to complete two circles before plummeting to the ground. As the plane fell it turned upside down and hit the ground with such force that both men were rendered unrecognisable.

Alan Hardy's remains were returned to his native Kent and he was buried in the churchyard of Chilham Parish Church where his grieving mother installed a stained glass window in memory of her son.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHAPLAIN 4TH CLASS, WILLIAM DUNCAN GEARE, ROYAL ARMY CHAPLAINS DEPARTMENT.

Image
CHAPLAIN 4TH CLASS, WILLIAM DUNCAN GEARE, ROYAL ARMY CHAPLAINS DEPARTMENT.   KILLED IN ACTION, 31st JULY 1917, AGED 26. William Geare arrived in Ilkley in early 1914 fresh from the Leeds Clergy School and recently ordained as a priest into the Church of England. Now he was to become the curate to the Parish Church of St Margaret's, on Queens Road, where he would assist the Vicar, Rev H L Glennie to minister to over 4000 parishioners. We are fortunate that many of William’s letters written to his family survive and they show an astonishing enthusiasm for his work in his new parish. Clearly, the Rev. Glennie was also impressed with his work and asked William to help with St Margaret's mission in the poor district of Little Horton In Bradford. It was the advent of war in August 1914 that seems to have convinced William that he he may have a different calling. At the beginning of 1915 he petitioned the Rev. Glennie to allow him the opportunity to serve as a...
Read more

SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37

Image
SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1 st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29 th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37 Harper Whitaker was born in Horsforth in 1881 the son of a stone contractor Thomas Whitaker and his wife Anne. One of twelve children he and his family lived in a large house called Summerfield, on New Road Side. A pupil at Ilkley Grammar School he went on to study civil engineering and during the early years of the 20 th Century went to work on the Lagos Railway in Nigeria. He was in the colony at the outbreak of war in 1914 and made an application to join one of the locally raised regiments who would see action in nearby German controlled Cameroon. However, because of the essential nature of his work he remained at his post with the railway company. By 1917 local West African units had been formed into the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and sent across the continent into East Africa where they were to assist in the long running campai...
Read more