b. 1769-04-05
d. 1839-08-20
Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, after whom Hardy Bay, Hardy Island, Hardy
Peak, and
Port Hardy were named,
1 was one of the Royal Navy captains who served under
Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, a group known as “Nelson’s band of brothers”.
2 Hardy was present at the time of
Nelson’s death, at the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, where
Nelson’s famous dying words were
Kiss me, Hardy.
3In 1815, Hardy, who had a long and illustrious naval career, acquired the rank of
Knight Commander of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath [KCB]; he rose to the position
of first sea lord in 1830; and, in 1831, he acquired the rank of Knight Grand Cross
[GCB]. During much of Hardy’s late career, as governor of the Royal Naval Hospital
at Greenwich, he desperately tried to improve the care and condition of pensioners.4
- 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 249.
- 2. Andrew Lambert, Nelson's band of brothers, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 3. J. K. Laughton, rev. Andrew Lambert, Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online.
- 4. Ibid.