Early life[edit]
Hardinge was born in London, the son of General Hon. Sir Arthur Edward Hardinge, (1828–1892), KCB, Commander of the Bombay Army and later Governor of Gibraltar, and a grandson of the 1st Viscount Hardinge.
A fluent speaker of Spanish and French, he studied Classics and Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford University, and won the Lothian Prize Essay in 1880, and became a Fellow of All Souls College in 1881.
He was a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria 1870–1876.
Family[edit]
Hardinge married, in 1899, Alexandra Mina Ellis, daughter of Major-General Sir Arthur Ellis. They had a daughter, and two sons Henry Arthur Mina Hardinge (1905–1925), and George Granville Douglas Hardinge (1912–1927), who both died young.