Thursday 12th February
A few photos from last Thursday's walk, this time with two Petes. We followed a circular road route to the north-east of Farleton Fell on narrow lanes with only the occasional tractor or car. Part of the interest and value of wandering around the countryside is finding items to research in more detail later on the Internet - see the gravestone story below.
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| Food for my periodic farmer-rant - more of their hateful, harmful, hideous hairy (h)orange string lying around blighting the countryside and ready to snare or entangle the unwary. |
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| Elevated views to the north, but not much of a day for photography |
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| My contribution to the annual snowdrop fest |
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Hutton Roof churchyard. T.B. Hardy VC, DSO, MC, CF.
Not sure what the CF stands for but there is plenty of info if you Google him. A poignant story. He was the vicar at Hutton Roof and joined up as a chaplain in 1916 at the age of 51 and died of wounds a week after being injured in October 1918. His gallantry exploits, unusual for a chaplain, are detailed on Wikipedia - search "Theodore Hardy VC" |
I think CF just means "Chaplain to the Forces", so shows that he was an Army Padre.
ReplyDeletewikipedia
aroundthehills - Welcome to the blog - thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteA muscular Christian you'd have to say. And only a Private. In my day chaplains had officer rank: the one that tried to turn me away from Bertrand Russell was, I think, a Squadron Leader. "Flights of angels" and all that.
ReplyDeleteRR -My inherited copy of Bert’s magnum opus resides high on my bookshelf. Daunted by it’s size I have never opened it - now you make me feel guilty and that is all mixed up with other irrational guilt at not having done National Service when most of my contemporaries did. I missed it due to my age by about three months.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we would have been brave and heroic in those appalling conditions?
MC and DSO = Officers Only - then, anyway
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Welcome to the blog unless I have said that before, but with your name tag I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteIt was RR's comment that attached the rank of private. This is a much as I could glean from Wikipedia:
Hardy was aged 51 when war broke out, and was priest at Hutton Roof in the Lake District. He volunteered at once but was turned down as being too old. Eventually, in August 1916, he was accepted for army service as a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class and attached to 8th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment.
Whatever, there is no doubt about him getting the decorations. Wikipedia refers to Hutton Roof as being in the Lake District which it isn't by quite a long way.
He wasn't "only a Private." If you look at some photos, you cans see three pips on his epaulettes which made him a Captain (although I don't suppose it bothered him a bit what rank he was).
ReplyDeleteS. Wilson - Welcome to my blog. I'don't think you've been here before? Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteI am curious to know how you came to this particular post from over a year ago - my apologies if you are somebody I know and not realised.
Fascinating stuff Conrad _ I shall definitely be seeking that out at some point.
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