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

Early life

The son of a Wath-upon-Dearne miner, Hardy was educated at

Wath Grammar School , motto_translation = Look to Better Things , address = Sandygate , city/town = Wath-upon-DearneRotherham , county = South Yorkshire , postcode = S63 7NW , country ...

. He trained as a teacher at Westminster College, London, and gained a degree in Curricular Studies at

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

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 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

he contested

Scarborough and Whitby Scarborough and Whitby is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Robert Goodwill, a Conservative. History The constituency name has had two separate periods of existence. ;1918–1974 A Scarborou ...

, and in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

he fought Sheffield Hallam. He entered parliament in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

for the Rother Valley constituency. In

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, 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 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. Never keen on the pursuit of high office, he was

parliamentary private secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

Tony Crosland Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book ''The ...

and

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 t ...

. 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 In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

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.

Other interests

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" Newton Abbot: David & Charles: 1975

References

External links

Obituary in the Daily Telegraph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Peter 1931 births 2003 deaths Deputy Lieutenants of South Yorkshire Hardy of Wath Life peers created by Elizabeth II Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 People from Wath upon Dearne People educated at Wath Academy National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people