Thomas "Bill" Hardy of Mon Repos, a semi-detached villa on Burberry Road, Valley Fields, London S.E. 23 in Company for Henry. A broken nose gives him the looks of a gangster. Ran away to sea and worked as an assistant ship's cook, later picked lemons in Chula Vista, California. An alter ego of Bill Townend; author of Deadly Ernest under the pseudonym Adela Bristow.

• Company for Henry