Name
Frederick George Hodge
10 Apr 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/11/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
7092
Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
1st/4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. AMAND BRITISH CEMETERY
I. B. 4.
France
Headstone Inscription
GONE FROM SIGHT BUT NOT FROM MEMORY MUM AND DAD
UK & Other Memorials
Harpenden Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Harpenden, Not on the St Albans memorials
Pre War
Frederick was born on 10 Apr 1893 in Harpenden to Frederick Hodge, a bricklayer, and Annie (nee Luck).
They lived on Wheathampstead Road. On the 1911 Census Frederick’s occupation was a gardener
Wartime Service
Frederick enlisted in Herts regiment on 25 May 1915.
He went to France, leaving Folkestone on 31 Aug 1916 in the process of being transferred to the West Riding Regiment (Duke of Wellington’s Own) on 10 Sep 1916 and joined 4th battalion on the Somme on 12 Sep 1916.
In early Nov he was slightly injured when he sustained a scalp wound from a fall of chalk while building a dug out. On 23 Nov 1916 Private Ellis, one of the cooks returning from the trenches at Fonquevillers on ration delivery, saw Frederick, another of the cooks, holding on to the back of the field kitchen looking extremely tired and managed to get a passing lorry to take Frederick to the Field Ambulance at Souastre where Frederick died that day. A Court of Inquiry was held and its findings were that Frederick died of Natural Causes (Heart Failure).
Additional Information
His father, Mr F Hodge, Wheathampstead Rd., Harpenden, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: “GONE FROM SIGHT BUT NOT FROM MEMORY MUM AND DAD”. War Gratuity of £6 and arrears of £5 9s 7d was paid to his mother.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Gareth Hughes, Jonty Wild, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
