F. Digby Hardy

John Henry Gooding, alias Frank Digby Hardy was an English naval writer, journalist, soldier, career criminal and wouldbe spy during the Irish War of Independence. Born in Devonport, Plymouth to a middleclass family, he was educated in London before gaining notoriety in his native Devon as a bigamist and a cheque forger. Imprisoned numerous times throughout his life, he was enlisted by British intelligence to capture Irish Republican Army leader Michael Collins in 1920.

Hardy was born John Henry Gooding onApril 1868 in Devonport, the only son of John Rowcliffe Gooding and Elizabeth Ann Furzeland , although he would later have four halfsiblings through his fathers remarriage in 1877. His father, a longtime employee of the Royal Navy, enlisted Hardy at the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, essentially a place of education for children of naval servicemen. The school recommended him to The Royal Observatory, Greenwich in 1883 and he worked under William Christie as a computer until his resignation and return to Devonport in 1884. There he married his first wife, Eliza Ann Willcocks in 1885 and fathered three children with her. In 1886 he experienced his first term in prison six weeks for forgery whilst working as a clerk in a store serving Devonport Dockyard. He was granted leniency as he had a young wife and child.

Source: Wikipedia