Thomas Hardy VC indeed!

[chickenfeet]

coughingbear drew attention to this article in the Grauniad which manages to claim that Captain Thomas Hardy won the Victoria Cross at Trafalgar. I'm curious and mean so I did some digging and found this surprisingly similar story in the Sydney Morning Herald which looks very much like the Guardian story with the crucial difference that it refers to "a medal" not a VC, won by Hardy at Trafalgar. So, it looks like The Guardian has plagiarised a story from the SMH without attribution and then in trying to gussy it up a bit has committed a howler. Truly with the ghosts of Scott and Cardus I cry "O tempora, O mores" and this in the week of the Old Trafford test.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

You're invoking Cardus against gussying up?

[coughingbear]

It appears that it's been silently corrected - it now says:

'The selling price breaks an A$595,000 record set in 2005 for a specially minted gold medal won by Captain Thomas Hardy during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.'

But it was acknowledged in the Corrections column, so possibly I can pride myself on having an effect.