LOOK for a memorial to one of the most honoured figures of the First World War in Bentham, where he taught for six years, and you will not find it.

Memorials to army chaplain Theodore Bayley Hardy are in Exeter, where he was born, in Pinner and the City of London where he was educated, Nottingham where he taught, in Hutton Roof, Cumbria, where he was vicar, and in Carlisle Cathedral.

There was once a plaque to the most highly decorated, non-combatant in the First World War in Hardy Hall, part of the old Bentham Grammar School, which was demolished. It also recalled the deaths of two other Bentham soldiers.

Luckily, the memorial was not destroyed and there is now a campaign to get it located at the new Bentham Primary School when it opens in the new year, sited on what was the old grammar school playing fields.

It recalls his heroism in the trenches where, between July, 1917, at the battle of Passchendaele and April, 1918, at the fourth battle of Ypres, he was awarded the DSO, the Military Cross and the Victoria Cross and was made Chaplain to the King. He was 54.

Active in reviving the memory of this vegetarian, teetotaller, a "humble, gentle and unobtrusive" man, is retired Roman Catholic Priest, Monsignor Paul Hypher, who lives in Moon's Acre, Bentham, the former home of Hardy and his family.

"He arrived at the front in December 1915 and from then until October 1918, when he was killed, Hardy hardly left the front staying in the trenches with the men, getting to know them, chatting or praying, encouraging them, writing letters for them, going 'over the top' as chaplain, without a weapon, staying with them if they were wounded and rescuing them when trapped.

"It was these rescues of wounded soldiers that earned Theodore his awards for outstanding and heroic bravery under fire," said Paul.

He became interested in Hardy by chance when he stumbled across a book about the history of Bentham Grammar School. "I didn't know he even existed until then," said Paul.

"I then visited Carlisle Cathedral and saw a book by David Raw called It's Only Me all about Bayley Hardy.

"Then in another big coincidence David Raw one day knocked on my front door with the question "Is this the house where Bayley Hardy lived?

"He is about to publish an extended version of his first book called A Reluctant Hero."

The title It's Only Me comes from the phrase Hardy used when approaching the men in the thick of the action in the trenches. The short-sighted chaplain would call out: "It's only me!"

They would know it was their 'dear old padre' approaching through withering bullets and shells.

There is an oil painting by Terence Cuneo, of Hardy, who lost his wife to cancer in 1913, receiving his VC from King George V, just a few weeks before he was killed.

In the background is his daughter Elizabeth, a nurse. She always criticised the painting because it depicted her father wearing muddy boots.

She maintained that her father would never appear before the King in such a state and had spent the previous evening diligently cleaning them.

Hardy was wounded by a shell at Selle in the fifth battle of Ypres on October 11, 1918, a month before the end of the war, and died in Rouen on October 18. He is buried in grave one, row J, plot V, Block S, Sever military cemetery, Rouen.