Paul Hardy was an English illustrator, best known for his regular illustrations in The Strand Magazine, his painting of Canterbury Pilgrims (1903) and for his drawings associated with the serials of the writer Samuel Walkey (1871–1953). Paul was the eldest child of David and Emily Hardy. Paul's father was also an artist, as was his grandfather James Hardy senior and his uncles James Hardy junior and Heywood Hardy, all from an old Yorkshire family. All Paul's siblings, Norman, Evelyn and Dorothy Hardy, were illustrators.

Paul Hardy was born on 2 August 1862, near Bath, Somerset. He received his education in Clifton, Bristol. He settled in Chelsea, London in 1886 and married the sculptor Ida Mary Wilton Clarke (1862–1955) on 28 July 1888 at St. Matthias, Earl's Court, in Kensington and Chelsea, London. After their marriage the couple moved to Bexleyheath for a few years, then to Chobham, Cheltenham, Tisbury and finally to The Cottage, Church Street, Storrington. He designed and made the original galleon weathervane, now kept inside St Mary's church in Storrington. His son was Brigadier Gordon Paul Umfreville Hardy (1894-1974) who married Sophia H. Dickinson in 1917.

Hardy exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890 with His Majesty Henry VIII visits Sir Thomas More at Chelsea and again in 1899 with There it befell, that as they rode near a forest, they saw a damsel and her dwarf sore distressed. These are the only Royal Academy Exhibition works attributed to Hardy up to 1905.

Hardy was a skilled metal worker and made his own replica armour. He was an advisor to both the Armoury Department at the British Museum and to the Auctioneer Sotheby's. In recognition of his work as a black-and-white artist, and his contribution to the study of medieval arms and armour, he was granted a Civil List pension of £80 in 1932. This was followed by a Royal Academy pension of £50 seven years later.

Hardy illustrated at least 170 books in his career, and was equally prolific with magazines. One of the juvenile magazines he regularly drew for was Chums, which he produced illustrations for from 1896 to 1940, over 40 years. One book that Hardy illustrated was The Story of Susan by Alice Dudeney (1903). (Hardy's affair with Alice Dudeney contributed to the separation of the Dudeneys in 1913).

Hardy died on 2 January 1942 in Storrington, Sussex.