Name
Francis Dodgson
10 May 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/07/1916
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Yorkshire Regiment (Alexandra, Princess of Wales' Own)
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SERRE ROAD CEMETERY No.2
XXVIII. K. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
St Lawrence Church Memorial Plaque, Bovingdon,
Individual Plaque, St Lawrence Church, Bovingdon,
Memorial Hall Plaque, Bovingdon,
Marlborough College Memorial Hall,
Trinity College WW1 Memorial, Cambridge,
Stock Exchange War Memorial, London
Pre War
Francis Dodgson was born on 10 May 1889 in Hampstead, London and baptised on 15 Jun 1889 at St Paul's Church, Hampstead, the son of Henley Frederick and Helen (German) Dodgson and one of three boys. At the time of his birth the family were living at 13 Goldhurst Terrace and his father was a stockbroker.
On the 1901 Census he was an 11 year old scholar at St Christopher's School, Eastbourne, Sussex. His parents were living at Frognal Rise, Hampstead, with his brothers Philip and Guy and four servants.
He was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, 1904, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge from 1908, where he gained a BA in 1911. He then became a stockbroker in the family firm.
His parents, brother Philip and cousin Arthur Dodgson were living at Green Lodge, Bovingdon on the 1911 Census with five servants. His father died on 30 July 1913 at Bovingdon and his mother remarried to Hamilton Fulton at St James's Westminster on 1 June 1916.
He was engaged to Marjorie Secretan from nearby Bennetts End, Herts and they were to have been married on his next leave.
Wartime Service
Francis volunteered at the outbreak of war and obtained his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in September 1914. He entered France on 26 August 1915 and was promoted to Captain in 8th Service Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment in May 1916 commanding “B” Company.
He was killed in action, aged 27, leading his company in the assault on Contalmaison on the Somme. The assault began at 4.50 pm on 10th July when the 8th Battalion scrambled out of Horseshoe Trench, but five hundred yards from the village they were hit by heavy machine gun and rifle fire from the front and left flank and then from the rear, which caused many casualties.
He was posted as 'missing believed killed' on 10 July 1916 and his name was originally commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, but in 1928 his body was found and identified. and he is now buried in Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, France.
Additional Information
His mother received pay owing of £105 3s 10d. She was also granted probate of his estate on 16 December 1916 with effects of £6440 3s 4d.
Brother of Captain Guy Dodgson who died from wounds received in action on 14 November 1918 and is also commemorated on the Bovingdon memorials.
His brother Philip served in the Royal Field Artillery eventually being promoted to Major, but survived the war. He married Eveline Fulton in 1918 in Salisbury, and lived in Hampshire.
Reginald Secretan, the brother of his fiancée Marjorie Secretan, was killed in action on 31 July 1917 at the Battle of St Julien, whilst serving with the Hertfordshire Regiment. Marjorie married Charles Fair at St Michael's Pimlico, later the same year.
Francis features in the book 'Marjorie's War. Four Families in the Great War 1914-1918' by Reginald and Charles Fair.
His original grave marker, a wooden cross, and that of his brother Guy, are in Salisbury Cathedral and there is a stone memorial in the field where Francis fell, close to Contalmaison, erected by his mother.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Paul Johnson, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, archive.marlboroughcollege.org., www.roll-of-honour.com.. www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk
