Remembering World War II

Claude Clarence Hardy Fireman/Trimmer Canadian Merchant Navy SS Grayburn (London, England) June 26, 1920 North Ingonish, Victoria Co., NS June 29, 1941 20 Halifax Memorial Panel 18 Commemorated on page 150 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 27, August 24, and October 30 Claude Clarence Hardy was the son of Levi William Hardy (1890-1974) and Mary Chatfield (Canning) Hardy (1894-1977) of North Ingonish, NS. Four brothers, William Harris Hardy (1918-1944), Gordon Walter Hardy (1923-2014), Harold Samuel Hardy (1926-2007), and Wilfred Cecil Hardy (d. 2016) also served during WWII. William Hardy served as a Corporal with the West Nova Scotia Regiment, and was killed in action on December 13, 1944, during fighting in Italy. Claude served on the SS Grayburn (London, England) and was lost at sea when the ship was sunk by enemy action south of Iceland on June 29, 1941. The 6,342-ton British steam merchant SS Grayburn had departed from Baltimore, Maryland, in June 1941 with a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 16th and was headed for Swansea, England. Carrying scrap and steel, it sailed with Convoy HX-133, and was torpedoed and sunk by the U-651 south of Iceland in the northern Atlantic Ocean at 12:35 in the morning on June 29, 1941. It was 4 days after Kenneth’s 36th birthday. Of the ship’s complement, 35 died and 17 survivors were picked up by the corvette HMS Violet (K 35), HMS Northern Wave (FY 153), and HMS Arabis (K 73).

Claude Hardy

Sources: Canadian Virtual War Memorial uboat.net