The Editor of the RFA Historical Society was recently at the Tower Hill Memorial in London and noted a plaque on the Memorial to RFA War Sepoy which also commemorated the death of Captain Alexander Holmes Hardy RFA.

The Editor of the RFA Historical Society was recently at the Tower Hill Memorial in London and noted a plaque on the Memorial to RFA War Sepoy which also commemorated the death of Captain Alexander Holmes Hardy RFA.

The Editor was aware that the RFA War Sepoy was bombed on the 19 and 25 July 1940 in Dover Harbour and sunk as a block ship in that harbour on 7 September of the same year.

Records for the year indicated there were no deaths as a result of these attacks and the Navy List for December 1939 shows that the ship’s Master from 19 November 1939 was Captain Thomas G Bennett RFA (Lieutenant Commander RN (Retd)).

A search of the Navy List for 1941 found that Captain Hardy had been appointed as Master of RFA Thermol on 3 October 1941

Further enquiries revealed that Captain Hardy had in fact died at his home in Northern Ireland on the 30 April 1943 through natural causes and was buried with his wife in a local cemetery.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had this brought to their attention and, after they obtained and examined a copy of Captain Hardy’s death certificate, has advised that they will correct this error on the Tower Hill Memorial and in their records.

Captain Hardy has been registered in our Last Post listing and this can be visited here