Ernest Hardy

Who was Ernest Hardy?

Ernest George Hardy was a classicist and Principal of Jesus College, Oxford from 1921 to 1925.

Hardy was born in Hampstead, England and was educated at Highgate School. He then went to Exeter College, Oxford from 1871 to 1875, where he was a scholar and achieved a double-first in Literae Humaniores. He was elected a Fellow of Jesus College in 1875. He resigned in 1878. He taught at Felsted School for two years and was headmaster of The King's School, Grantham, where he met Frederick Rolfe, then an undermaster at the school. He resigned following a struggle with the governors, and moved back to Oxford where he carried out private research.

He taught classics at Jesus College from 1894 and he was re-elected to a Fellowship at Jesus College in 1896. He became Vice-Principal in 1897 and wrote a history of the college in 1899. He remained a long-term friend of Frederick Rolfe, and in 1904 wrote a letter commending Rolfe which is reprinted in Symons' biographical study of Rolfe. After Sir John Rhys died in 1915, the Principalship was vacant until 1921, when Hardy was elected. He died suddenly in 1925, three weeks after presiding at the first College Gaudy since 1914.