Henry Dinham Chard

Henry Dinham Chard (1760 – 22 December 1847) was an English shipbuilder and ship-owner who established the first major shipyard at Lyme Regis in Dorset. Over a career spanning three decades, he built and launched dozens of vessels—including sloops, luggers, cutters and brigs—valuably contributing to the economy of Lyme Regis.

Early life Chard was born in Chideock, Dorset, in 1760, the son of John Chard of Ilminster and Mary Dinham of Ruishton, Somerset. After his father's death, his mother kept the Red Lion Inn at Chideock. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed for seven years to Nicholas Bools, a Bridport shipbuilder, where he learned the trade.

Chard was regarded locally as an innovator and a builder of fast, seaworthy craft. The Morning Chronicle obituary observed that "even in these days of advanced mechanical skill, the means which he suggested and adopted half a century since are still in use with hardly any variation." Chard frequently assisted in refloating stranded ships along the Dorset and Devon coasts, often without payment. During the Napoleonic Wars he carried government stores to the Channel Islands, losing several uninsured vessels to French privateers and ultimately suffering financial ruin.

Later life Chard married Elizabeth Stocker in 1797 and had 11 children between 1798 and 1819. Following the death of his mother in 1807, Chard managed the sale of her well-known inn, the Red Lion at Chideock, acting as agent for the estate. He gradually withdrew from shipbuilding and later relocated with his wife Elizabeth and their children to London. Peter Lacey describes him as "the foremost figure of the town's brief but energetic age of shipbuilding."