Henry Wells Hardy

Born: 1820, Chel­sea, Lon­don, England. Died: Jan­u­a­ry 1893, East­bourne, Sus­sex, Eng­land.

Henry’s par­ents were Will­iam Wells Har­dy and So­phia Hardy. In the ear­ly part of his ca­reer, he held var­i­ous or­gan ap­point­ments in Eng­land, in­clud­ing or­gan­ist of the par­ish church of Ot­tery St. Ma­ry, Dev­on, and in Ber­bice, Bri­tish Gui­a­na (now Guy­a­na). The 1851 Bri­tish cen­sus lists him as a Pro­fess­or of Mu­sick, liv­ing in Ot­tery St. Ma­ry with his wife Har­ri­ett (a gov­ern­ess) and their two-year-old daugh­ter Edith (who had been born in Ber­bice). In the mid-1850s the fam­i­ly moved to East­bourne, where they would make their home at Ber­bice Vil­la, Hard­wick Road. By 1859, Har­dy was ad­ver­tis­ing his ser­vic­es in the East­bourne Ga­zette as a teach­er of the pi­a­no, or­gan and sing­ing, and as a sell­er or hir­er of pi­a­nos. He be­came or­gan­ist of East­bourne Par­ish Church (St. Mary’s) in 1854, and of St. Sav­iour’s Church in the same town in 1869, hold­ing both posts un­til 1870. By 1869, he had be­come first mu­sic mas­ter of East­bourne Col­lege (found­ed 1867), where he would re­main un­til 1873. From 1870-2 he played the or­gan at All Saints’ Church, Pad­ding­ton, Lon­don. By 1876, he was a pro­fess­or of mu­sic in Lon­don and East­bourne, and choir­mas­ter at St. Paul’s Church, East­bourne. He al­so con­duct­ed the East­bourne Chor­al So­ci­e­ty for at least two de­cades. Af­ter his death, the East­bourne Her­ald Chron­i­cle ob­served, Mr. Hardy was wide­ly known and his death will be de­plored by a large cir­cle of friends."

Cyber Hymnal