Second Lieutenant Philip Ormiston Hodgson
3nd Battalion attached 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment
Died of Wounds
Date of Birth: 1887
Place of Birth: Kensington London
Date of Death: 3 March 1915 in France, aged 28
Buried: Estaires Communal Cemetery, France. Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial, Teignmouth.
Awarded the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
2nd Lieutenant Philip Ormiston Hodgson, age 28. Born 1887 in Kensington London, he was the son of Lt. Thomas (RN) & Mrs Georgina Hodgson.
He was shown on 1901 census with his parents living in Kensington. Philip was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but left due to ill health. In 1911 he was living with his parents and sister in Kensington, he was listed as 'gentleman'. His mother later moved to 11 Barn Park, Teignmouth.
He volunteered at the outbreak of war and was gazetted on 15 August 1914 to 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. The regiment arrived in France on 22 February 1915; Philip was only at the front for 3 weeks when he gallantly led a charge against a farmhouse held by the enemy with machine guns.
Wounded on 12 March he died in No. 25 Field Hospital from wounds received at Neuve Chapelle on 13 March 1915. Buried in Estaires Communal Cemetery, France. Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial, Teignmouth.
2nd Lieutenant Philip Ormiston Hodgson. Clipping from The Bond of Sacrifice - Volume II page 257 © IWM (HU 115733)
Transcript of the above clipping:
LIEUTENANT PHILIP ORMISTON HODGSON, 3rd (RESERVE) attd. 2nd BATTN. EAST LANCASHIRE R EGIMENT ,was the fourth son of the late Lieutenant Thomas Tarleton Hodgson, R.N., and only son of Mrs .Thomas Tarleton Hodgson,of 11,Barne Park,Teignmouth, Devon and grand son of the late William Hodgson, D .D. , Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and of the late James Ormiston MacWilliam, M.D., C.B., Surgeon R.N.,F.RS. , F.RC.S., Medical Inspector of H.M. Customs.
East Lancashire Regiment
Cap Badge
He was born in London on the 8th March,1887, and was educated at Stubbington, Fareham, Hants, and at the R.M.C. , Sandhurst, where he was Senior Sergeant. He passed into Sandhurst in 1906, but was obliged to leave it on account of temporary ill-health.
In 1911 he applied for a commission, but was refused on account of his having passed their regulated age.
On the outbreak of the war he again applied, and was gazetted on the 15th August 1914, to the 3rd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, joining at Plymouth. 2nd Lieutenant Hodgson was a great swimmer,good at all kinds of sport, and a good rider.
He went to the front on the 19th February, and was shot in the left temple on the 12th March, 1915, whilst gallantly leading an attack on a position north of Neuve Chapelle.
His battalion formed part of the 24th Brigade. A Major of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment wrote to his moher on the 20th March,1915, as follows: "Although your son had only been a short time with the regiment he was universally popular , and a great loss to us. He was severely wounded in the morning of the 12th March whilst leading his men against a German position under a heavy machine gun fire and I regret to say he died in hospital in Estaires on the 13th.
He was buried in the cemetery at Estaires.
His Company Commander gave the following more detailed account of him and of his death : "He was very cheerful and quite indifferent to the enemy's shell and rifle fire. On the night of the 11th my company entrenched themselves behind the Northamptons. They quite unexpectedly Ieft the trench soon after dawn and took a German trench apposite. We left one trench to support them, and my intention and, in fact original orders were to occupy the Northampton's trench if they evacuated it. On reaching that point I stopped in the trench at any rate to collect and organise my company.
The Second-in-Command however who had come with us, and who was ill fact leading us, shouted to me to come on on, and your son echoed his words . I had therefore to go on but we had not more than about 20 men with us. Just as we left the trench a murderous machine-gun fire broke out from the German line and practically everyone was hit except Second-in-Command, two men and myself. "
2nd Lieutenant Hodgson's mother also received appreciative letters from officers of the 3rd Battalion, with whom her son had served. A Captain in the 2nd Battalion of East Lancashire Regiment, who was with Lieutenant Hodgson the night before Neuve Chapelle, wrote:"I thank you for your kind letter, and I am writing to tell you of your son's life with the regiment as I was always with him in and out of the trenches, except for the last day, as I was sent to hospital the morning before.
I remember well our first meeting. I had been running 'A' Company single-handed, excepting for one subaltern. Our Second-in-Command met your son and the draft at Merville brought them to Estaires, where the regiment was in reserve billets. He knew how hard up I was for subalterns, but I was not the only one, so he said to me, "We' ve got one of the right sort arrived wth this draft. I advise you to get hold of him before some other Company Commander does.' And I never regretted taking his advice. We had some tough times in the trenches together and his bravery, common sense and cheery nature helped me more than I can say.
The men would do anything for him and would follow him anywhere. Colour·Sergeant Vaughan, the Orderly Room Sergeant has just been in this room. I told him I was writing to you about your son,and he said, 'Oh sir he was a good officer."
