Harold Gathorne Hardy
Harold Gathorne Hardy (1850-1881)
1881 Obituary [1]
The Hon. HAROLD GATHORNE HARDY was born in London in March 1850, and died on Saturday, June 11th, 1881, at Low Moor House, Low Moor. He was the fourth and youngest son of Viscount Cranbrook (Gathorne Hardy), who was the third son of Mr. John Hardy, formerly member for Bradford.
The deceased gentleman was educated at Radley College, and took his M.A. degree at University College, Oxford, being first class in the final school of law and history. He was elected Fellow of All Saints College, Oxford, in 1872. During the same year he came to reside at Low Moor, with a view to acquiring a knowledge of the large business carried on by the company with which his family had been so long identified. In this capacity he developed a commercial aptitude of a high order. Extensive and complicated as are the ramifications of the Low Moor Company's business, the deceased quickly grasped the situation, and before long was made director and managing partner of the concern. In his intercourse with managers and work-people he was ever courteous and solicitous for the welfare of those employed, and this characteristic was not less marked in his relations with the inhabitants of Low Moor generally.
The hon. gentleman's public appointments, that we are cognisant of, were not numerous. He was a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding; a director of the Bradford Old Bank, Limited; and just before his illness he was elected chairman of the North-West Riding Conservative Registration Association, but he never took office.
He became a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1879.