Thomas Walter Harding

Colonel Thomas Walter Harding (1843–1927) was an industrialist and civic figure in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He was born in Lille, France, where his Leeds-based father had a factory, and was educated at Leeds Grammar School. He built extensions to Tower Works in Holbeck in 1899 and the 1920s and, when City Square was remodelled, proposed and financed the sculptures including the Black Prince .

Arms of Thomas Walter Harding: Argent, on a bend nebuly azure between two bees volant proper three martlets or. The Latin motto Per Ardua Surgo[1] means "through difficulties I rise". Village sign of Madingley in Cambridgeshire, which estate he purchased in 1905

He used the title "Colonel" after the Leeds Artillery Volunteers gave him the title of Honorary Colonel when he retired after 33 years service in 1893.

He was Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1898–99, and was created a Freeman of the City of Leeds in 1903. He moved from his home in Abbey House (originally the Kirkstall Abbey gatehouse) to Hartsholme Hall in Lincolnshire (1902) and Madingley Hall in Cambridgeshire (1906), which he restored. He was appointed High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in March 1901,[2] and Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire in April 1901.[3]

Harding was also a writer. He published The Abbot of Kirkstall in 1926, a novel about the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, and John Wycliffe.[4]

References

1. Here mis-spelled as "surco".
2. "No. 27293". The London Gazette. 17 March 1901. p. 1760.
3. "No. 27301". The London Gazette. 2 April 1901. p. 2300.
4. McGarry, Daniel D., White, Sarah Harriman, Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels. Scarecrow Press, New York, 1963 (p.77).

Further reading

• Hall, Melanie (October 2007). "Harding, (Thomas) Walter (1843–1927)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 November 2009.. Available online to subscribers and via UK public libraries.