Name
Francis William Hodges
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/12/1917
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
290112
Royal Engineers
98th Light Railway Train Crew
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATBY MEMORIAL
Egypt
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary's Parish Church Memorial, Watford
Pre War
Son of Walter and Emily Ada (nee WALDEN) HODGES of Watford.
His parents married 15 April 1895 at St Botolph’s, Brampton, Northants. Walter died 14 April 1927 in Watford aged 60, and was buried 20 April in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford; Emily died 9 October 1929 in Watford aged 58, and was buried 12 October, also in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
Francis was born 1896 in Northampton, and baptised 30 August 1896 at St Mary’s, Far Cotton, Northampton. He worked for the London & North Western Railway Company as a cleaner at the locomotive shed, Watford.
On the 1901 Census, aged 4 he lived in Far Cotton, with his parents and one sibling. On the 1911 Census, an errand boy aged 14, he lived in Chelmsford, Essex, with his parents and one sibling.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Watford; was entitled to the British War medal, and was drowned when the hospital ship Osmaniah was hit by a torpedo and sank, en route to Egypt.
Additional Information
There is an In Memoriam for Francis in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 4 January 1919.
Unfortunately, Francis’ Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
