My niece Samantha married Matt today in Bath and I should have been there, but I had a slight set-to with a flight of Stagecoach stairs....and lost. So I must rely on photos and social networking. I hate buses!
Instead of a trip south to Bath, I spent some time searching out George Francis Hardy. My 1st cousin four times removed, he was born in Islington in 1856, the elder son of George and Frances (nee Culpin). Last time I "saw" him was in the 1881 census and I determined that this was far too long ago.
And there he was, in 1911, in Pall Mall, a consulting actuary, together with his wife Jane. Most likely him, as he was cited as being born in Barnsbury, which is pretty much Islington. Backwards, then, to 1901 and he's in Bloomsbury Square. Married in 1883, to Jane Ann Lester. So far, so good.
Then I started looking for his death (it's a genealogy thing; no sooner do you find someone, than you're trying to kill them off) and found a George Francis Hardy in the Probate Index. But it surely couldn't be mine, as this one was a Sir. That's most unusual for my family!!
But, lo, a comparison of occupations seems to confirm him as mine after all. There can't be that many George Francis Hardys born in Islington in 1856 who turned into an actuary, surely. And, checking back to what I already had for 1881, he's an actuary then too.
I found a brief comment about Actuarial work and India connected with his name but he received his CBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1914 as Chairman of the Actuarial Advisory Committee to the National Health Insurance Joint Committee.
But, alas, he didn't live much longer to enjoy it: he died at the age of 58 in October the same year.
Imagine, though. A Sir in the family......
