The Hardy & Jones Family in WWII
Written by Lois Hardy (with Donald V. Macdougall [1]). Additional footnotes and details are available upon request: donvmac@gmail.com. This article has been adapted from the original publication in Connections (Journal of the Quebec Family History Society), November 2020. Minor edits by Valour Canada.
When war was declared in September 1939, Richard Ernest (Dick) Hardy of Greenfield Park asked Helena Jones of Mackayville to marry him. He was a 27 year old Quarter Master Sergeant (WOII) with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (R.C.A.M.C.) in Montreal. Expecting that Dick would soon leave for Europe, the couple married the next month and had the first wedding in Greenfield Park United Church’s new building.
Richard (Dick) Hardy’s Second World War Experience
Dick’s story is not that of a fighting man; rather, he was part of the vast support team crucial to the success of those on the front lines. Early in the war, Dick’s unit remained in Canada to train others. In June 1940, he was posted to No. 14 General Hospital, a 1,200-bed unit activated at Westmount Barracks. It wasn’t until June 1941, a month after his daughter Eleanor was born, that No. 14 left Montreal for England – first to Halifax by train and then across the Atlantic aboard Stirling Castle.
Once in England, Dick was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major, senior non-commissioned officer, with hospital administration duties. No. 14 occupied three hospitals near London: Pinewood (350 beds), Aldershot in Farnborough (600 beds), and Horley in Surrey (900 beds) where they received casualties evacuated from Dieppe. (View a map of the Canadian Hospitals in England).
Needed in Italy, No. 14 General Hospital personnel boarded Santa Elena as part of 1,800 Canadian soldiers (and medical staff) and sailed from Liverpool in October 1943. However, it was an ill-fated trip: Santa Elena’s convoy of 43 US and British ships was attacked by German aircraft in the Mediterranean near Algeria at dusk on November 6. The first Luftwaffe planes carried jet-propelled radio-guided glide bombs (for the first time in the war), and one hit Santa Elena. Shortly thereafter, a torpedo bomb struck Santa Elena — the order was given to abandon ship.
No. 14’s Wally Plumpton wrote to his parents about the sinking:[i]
“It was very dark, but I could see that the ship was gradually getting lower in the water at one end. Just as I got near the bottom of the net, a big wave washed up and lifted me off the net and against the ship. Golly, that water was cold! … I saw a raft a little distance off with some men hanging onto it, so I made for that…. I heard someone speaking and thought I recognized the voice, and discovered that Dick Hardy was hanging on the other side… We couldn’t do very much talking, because every time we opened our mouths we got a mouthful of salt water… the water was getting colder and colder the longer we were in it, and I was beginning to get very tired. … after a few hours [the life jackets] began to get waterlogged, and it got more difficult to keep up. After a little over four hours I was beginning to feel that I couldn’t hang on much longer.”
All from the Santa Elena were rescued by Allied ships in the area. Dick, and many others who were taken aboard by the US troopship Monterey, continued to Naples where they disembarked and continued their journey.
A newspaper clipping, “Montreal Hospital Now Operates in Italy, Jan. 22, 1944 – delayed.” (Credit: Sholto Watt, Montreal Star)
On December 5, No. 14 General Hospital opened at Caserta, Italy, but by January 1944, the hospital was over capacity with 1,400 patients. War Correspondent Sholto Watt reported in the Montreal Star that “three hard-working men at the hospital are the (two) chief surgeons and R.S.M. R.E. Hardy, of Montreal.” Watt also describes (see the newspaper clipping) a challenge the staff overcame after arriving at the hospital.
When No. 14 moved north to Perugia, Dick was not with the unit. Severely ill, he was evacuated to England for treatment. Various postings followed before he returned to Montreal, more than 4 years after leaving his family.
Charles Frederick Jones at the Liquid Carbonic. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
Helena’s Second World War Experience
Back in Canada, Helena joined her father at Montreal’s Liquid Carbonic to work in purchasing; the company changed from making soda fountains to producing tank parts. Helena’s mother looked after little Eleanor, who learned that her father was the uniformed man in the mantle photo – upon sight of any soldier, she would call out “Daddy.”
Mary (Cooke) Hardy and Richard Hardy, Sr. He served in the Home Guard, and she was a Red Cross volunteer but died suddenly in 1943 at age 62 – terrible news for Dick to receive in Italy so far away from family who shared his grief. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
On the home front, Canadians were rationing and using food coupons, and Helena was disconcerted to later discover that the care packages the family sent to Dick for his enjoyment were used instead to help smooth out difficult situations that arose with his men. Definitely appreciated, however, was money Helena and Dick’s sister, Maud, regularly sent via the Red Cross to a friend (and her friend’s children) who were suffering in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, especially as the father was away serving in the British Merchant Marine. In a heartfelt gesture of appreciation, one daughter in Hong Kong was given the English name “Eleanor” after the little girl in Montreal.
Lilly (de Munnik) Jones tending the baby so Helena could do war work. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
Dick and Helena would later have another daughter, and their legacy of five grandchildren and six great grandchildren dispersed to Ottawa, California, and North Carolina over the following years.
Younger brothers of Dick and Helena joined the air force, shown here with their niece: Left to right. Herbert Cooke Hardy, Eleanor, William (Bill) Jones. July 1942. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
Left and right, Dick Hardy at Pinewood Hospital, UK, Oct 12, 1941. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
Pinewood Hospital UK, exterior and wards, 1941. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
Main photo: Helena and Dick at Bonaventure Station in Montreal, June 19, 1941. (Credit: Hardy family collection)
[1] Mr. Macdougall is Richard Hardy’s son-in-law.
[i] https://www.daileyint.com/seawar/apfjtwas.htm (accessed 20200926).