Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardman, Edward Townley
HARDMAN, EDWARD TOWNLEY (1845–1887), geologist, was born 6 April 1845 at Drogheda of an old family of the neighbourhood. He was educated mainly in his native town, but in 1867 won an exhibition at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. There he took his diploma in mining, and in 1870 joined the staff of the geological survey of Ireland. In 1874 he became a fellow of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland and of the Chemical Society of London. His earlier papers were mainly devoted to the chemical analysis of minerals, to coal mining in co. Tyrone, and to bone-caves. In 1883 he was selected by the colonial office to report on the mineral resources of the Kimberley district in the north-east of West Australia, and, with camera and sketch-book, accompanied the expedition under the Hon. J. Forrest, crown surveyor-general. He discovered an extensive goldfield near the Napier Range, and after his return in October 1885, and the publication of his reports, it was understood that he would be appointed the first colonial geologist to the West Australian government. He returned to his duties on the Irish survey, but assisted in 1886 in the arrangement of the minerals from West Australia at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. In March 1887 he was surveying in bad weather among the Wicklow mountains, and when weakened by exposure was attacked by typhoid fever, to which he succumbed, after a few days' illness, on 30 April 1887, leaving a widow and two children. His papers appear in the 'Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland,' the 'Geological Magazine,' the 'Journal of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland,' and the 'Transactions' of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Royal Dublin Society. Hardman was an able chemist and geologist, a clever draughtsman, and a genial companion. A range of mountains in the north-east of West Australia bears his name.
[Geol. Mag. 1887, p. 334, by A. B. Wynne, with full list of papers.]