Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardman, Frederick
HARDMAN, FREDERICK (1814–1874), novelist and journalist, was the son of Joseph Hardman, a London merchant of Manchester extraction, who was intimate with Coleridge, and was a frequent contributor to 'Blackwood's Magazine.' On leaving Whitehead's school at Ramsgate, he entered the counting-house of his maternal uncle, Rougemont, a London merchant, but disliking a sedentary life he in 1834 joined the British Legion in Spain as lieutenant in the second lancers. Severely wounded in one of the last engagements with the Carlists, he passed the period of his convalescence at Toulouse, and on returning to England became a regular contributor to 'Blackwood.' His first article (1840) was an account of an expedition with the guerilla chief Zurbano, reprinted with other papers in 'Peninsular Scenes and Sketches.' 'The Student of Salamanca' was also reprinted, and 'Tales from Blackwood' contain nine of his shorter stories. In 1849 he edited Captain Thomas Hamilton's 'Annals of the Peninsular Campaign,' in 1852 he published 'Central America,' and in 1854 he translated Weiss's 'History of the French Protestant Refugees.' A critique of the Paris Salon which he forwarded to the 'Times' led to his engagement by that journal about 1850 as a foreign correspondent. He was first stationed at Madrid, was at Constantinople during the Russo-Turkish war, and was occasionally in the Crimea, where his exposure of the drunkenness which was demoralising the British army after the suspension of hostilities led to vigorous repressive measures. Hardman was next in the Danubian Principalities, was the confidant of Cavour at Turin, witnessed the campaigns in Lombardy, Morocco, and Schleswig, was at Tours and Bordeaux in 1870-1, and was at Rome in 1871-3, till he succeeded Mr. Oliphant as chief correspondent of the 'Times' at Paris, where he died on 6 Nov. 1874. He was well acquainted not only with Spanish character and literature, but with continental literature and languages.
[Information from Lieut. Julian Hardman and from Messrs. Blackwood; Times, 13 Nov. 1874; Blackwood's Mag. February 1879.]