Theodore Bayley Hardy VC DSO MC

In 1916, at the age of fifty four, a slight, short sighted, unassuming country vicar and local school master became an Army Chaplain. Theodore Bayley Hardy was destined to become the most decorated noncombatant in the First World War.

He was to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the D.S.O., and the M.C.

By day he performed the usual priestly and chaplaincy tasks but by night he would work the trenches dropping in with his inimitable "It's only me!" to bring comfort and moral and spiritual support in the nightmare of wars.

Sadly, he was to die of wounds only a few days before the Armistice.