Lady Hardy

She was the only child of Henry and Fanny Dixon, her maternal

grandfather, Walter Walsh, a successful, self-made Morley cloth manufacturer (Greenwood & Walsh) whose three mills stretched along Commercial Street.

She went to Morley's small private Froebel School (now St. Mary's Church Hall), and from there to Hunmanby Hall Girls Boarding School, near Filey.

Nineteen when war broke out, she worked on the land, initially picking rhubarb for local Morley farmer, Tom Brooks. Later she was billeted to Bewerley, near Pateley Bridge. Here, and for the rest of the war, she lived and worked contentedly with the Summerskill family, feeding animals, helping to bring in the harvest and – her main annual treat – attending the Pateley Show.

For all her privileged background, Mollie, the boarding school girl, was proving she was well able to adapt to life's changing circumstances.

Returning to Morley after the war, she became heavily involved in local going's on. Over the years she joined the Morley Musical Society, Morley Luncheon Club, Morley Amateur Dramatics, Batley Flower Club, Inner Wheel, the Conservative Club, the National Trust and the Red Cross.

Always a woman of faith, Mollie eventually chose to leave her parent's Rehoboth Chapel on Dawson Hill, which had been attended by H H Asquith, later to become Prime Minister, and move to St Peter's, Morley. It was here that she renewed her long-standing friendship with widower Sir Harry Hardy, marrying him in 1957.

Known as "Mr Morley", Sir Harry (1896-1984) was a textile and wool waste manufacturer who represented the town on the West Riding County Council from 1945-1970. He was knighted for public and political services in 1956.

Mollie devotedly supported him in his numerous business and community interests, and together they worked faithfully for St Peter's Church.

In her mid-60s, Mollie suffered the double blow of losing her mother and then Harry, 24 years her senior.

Following his death she changed churches to St Peter's, Gildersome, making many new friends.

Lady Hardy was the product of an altogether kindlier and more gracious age when honesty, respect, generosity of spirit and dislike of waste were taken as read.

She adapted, with imperturbable sang froid, to the seismic social, cultural and economic changes that transformed the mills towns of the old West Riding.

Although she found it "a queer old world", she retained her interest and curiosity in every person. She spoke with genuine interest to babies in pushchairs, ladies in lifts and supermarket cashiers.

People loved visiting Mollie. She could always put her health and immediate concerns to one side saying "Enough about me – tell me about you".

Always ready to adapt to life's changes, Lady Hardy was the friend of many – friendships being extremely important to her throughout her long life.