Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath

The Right Honourable The Lord Hardy of Wath DL
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage 27 September 1997 – 16 December 2003
Member of Parliament for Wentworth
In office 9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	John Healey
Member of Parliament for Rother Valley
In office 18 June 1970 – 13 May 1983
Preceded by	David Griffiths
Succeeded by	Kevin Barron
Personal details
Born	(1931-07-17)17 July 1931 Wath upon Dearne, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	16 December 2003(2003-12-16) (aged 72) Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England
Party	Labour
Spouse	Margaret Brookes ​ (m. 1954)​
Children	4
Education	University of Sheffield

Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath DL (17 July 1931 – 16 December 2003) was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life

The son of a Wath-upon-Dearne miner, Hardy was born on 17 July 1931 and educated at Wath Grammar School. He trained as a teacher at Westminster College, London, and gained a degree in Curricular Studies at Sheffield University before rising to be head of English at Mexborough County Secondary School.

Political career

While a local councillor, he stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate in several safe Conservative seats - in 1964 he contested Scarborough and Whitby, and in 1966 he fought Sheffield Hallam.

He entered parliament in 1970 for the Rother Valley constituency. In 1983, when constituency boundaries were re-organised, he moved with a part of his old Rother Valley constituency to the re-formed Wentworth constituency, for which he was Member of Parliament (MP) until retirement from the House of Commons in 1997.

Never keen on the pursuit of high office, he was parliamentary private secretary to Tony Crosland and David Owen. To his constituents he was a popular and hard-working constituency MP. This was reflected in the fact that, despite being identified with the right wing of the Labour party, in 1981 he survived a National Union of Mineworkers-directed attempt to force the local party in his mining constituency to deselect him as its parliamentary candidate in favour of a more left-wing candidate.

His main interests were the lot of the classroom teacher, and wildlife, of which he had an encyclopaedic knowledge. He was a sponsor of much wildlife-related legislation in parliament, including the Badger Act (1973) and the Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act (1975). During an all-night reading of the Felixstowe Docks Bill he regaled the Commons with impressions of the song birds whose habitats were supposedly threatened by the development.

House of Lords

On 27 September 1997 he was made a life peer as Baron Hardy of Wath, of Wath-upon-Dearne in the County of South Yorkshire and was an active member of the House of Lords until shortly before his death.

Coat of arms of Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath

Crest A badger sejant erect proper supporting a miner’s safety lamp Or. Escutcheon Sable between ten piles wavy Argent issuant from the flanks three lady’s slipper orchids in pale Or. Supporters On either side a greyhound sable winged Or. Motto Observe Consider Respond

Personal life and death

In 1954, Hardy married Margaret Brookes, with whom he had two sons and adopted another two; they were predeceased by two of their sons.

Outside parliament, he served on the council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the NSPCC. He is the author of A Lifetime of Badgers, published in 1975.

Hardy died from cancer at Rotherham General Hospital on 16 December 2003, at the age of 72.