Hardman Earle

Sir Hardman Earle, 1st Baronet (11 July 1792 – 25 January 1877) was a British railway director and slave owner.

He had previous been a canal shareholder, but sold up and bought shares in the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), joining his relative Charles Lawrence on the board of directors.

A family legend claimed that he made the investment after personally walking the entire route to assess its prospects.

He was a senior director there, but suffered defeat in his 1857 campaign to protect the position of his Grand Junction colleague Francis Trevithick.

[10] He remained an active member of the LNWR board of directors until his death, when he was thought to be the oldest such official in the UK.

[1] Earlestown in Newton-le-Willows is named after him, because he was the director of the LNWR responsible for the consolidation of the company's wagon works there and for building the new housing required by the expansion.