Leslie Hardinge was born in Calcutta, India, and was educated in England and America. He received his undergraduate degree from La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and then went on to earn three advanced degrees at the Adventist Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and finally his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1964. He began his ministerial career in the South England Conference in 1933, serving first as an intern and then pastor evangelist. Coming to America in 1947, Hardinge became a Bible teacher first at Union College, Lincoln Nebraska, and then in succeeding years Columbia Union College in Washington D.C. Newbold College in England and Pacific Union College, Angwin California. During a hiatus from teaching from 1973 to 1977 he came to southern California to pastor the Glendale City church and then his focus returned to education when he became president of Adventist University of the Philippines (formerly Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Far East). At AUP he planned and built a library for the seminary and dedicated his personal library of almost 1,000 books to it. Probably best known for producing audio tapes for the weekly Sabbath School lesson, a favorite of Sabbath School class teachers in many countries for some 28 years, Hardinge's teachings were distributed by The Spoken Word. An authority on the Isarelite Sancturary, he often said that if people could understand what happened in the sancturary, they would understand the relationship between God and man. Mr Hardinge, was married to Mary, and had one daughter Judy, three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.
