William (Bill) Valentine Hardy, OH 1922-26 was born on 10 January 1911, to Helen and Charles Valentine Hardy.  His father, Charles, had indeed been born on Valentine's Day, and passed the name onto his son.  Bill died in 1994 on Valentine's Day.

He attended Hymers College from the ages of 11 years old until he was 15 years old.  His father was a ship broker and at the time of his education, he was living near the school, on Marlborough Avenue, having previously come from the Bridlington area.

It is not known what Bill did straight after leaving Hymers College but in 1928, at the age of 17 years, he boarded HMAS Berrima, a passenger liner which previously served in the Royal Australian Navy, before carrying immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia.  During transit, he turned 18 years of age.

His reason for travelling to South Australia was as part of the Big Brother Scheme.  The scheme was set up under the Immigration Act 1923 and under the Act, a 'boy migrant' was a youth between the ages of 15-21 years who came to South Australia with the assistance of the Commonwealth Government.  Boy migrants in the scheme were farm apprentices and were assigned to a 'big brother' and a farmer when they arrived in Australia.

Unfortunately for Bill, things did not turn out as the scheme intended because his host family fell on very tough times and they apparently struggled.  He was on a farm in an area named Elliston in South Australia and was involved in farming, droving (the practice of moving livestock herds over long distances by walking them "on the hoof") and all the hard work that went along with that sort of work.

Eventually, he met Eva Priest and they married on 6 May 1944.  They went on to have three children and seven grandchildren.

Bill Hardy, holding his granddaughter, Helen in 1972

Bill passed away in Port Lincoln in February 1994 shortly after his 83rd birthday. His granddaughter, Helen, described Bill as a lovely quiet, very hard working man of the earth, who loved the simple things in life like a cup of tea and his garden.

My grandparents were salt of the earth people with very little.  They worked hard all their lives but you always wore your Sunday best. I still have Papa's suit!

School photo from 1923 kindly scanned in by Helen Hardy.  Her grandfather is in the front row, 12th boy to the right of the gap in the centre: