William Ross Hardie (6 January 1862 – 3 May 1916) was a Scottish classical scholar, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University from 1895 until his death.
Hardie was born in Edinburgh in 1862, son of tailor William Purves Hardie and Agnes, née Ross, and was and educated there at Circus Place School and Edinburgh University, where he graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA hons) degree in 1880, and then at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated BA and later MA.
At Balliol, he taught a form of Greek that was "simple, pronounceable, and intelligible to the ear", writing to John Stuart Blackie "I always endeavour to make the accent audible in pronouncing Greek.
I quote, read, or recite Greek as much as possible, and I frequently teach composition orally, by... choosing by chance a piece of English and working out a version of it by common suggestion and discussion".
His elder son, W. F. R. (Frank) Hardie, was President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 1950 to 1969.