Name
Guy Dodgson
11 June 1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/11/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAUDRY BRITISH CEMETERY
I. D. 32.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY AND HIS SOUL TO GOD
UK & Other Memorials
St Lawrence Church Memorial Plaque, Bovingdon, Individual Plaque, St Lawrence Church,, Bovingdon, Memorial Plaque, Memorial Hall, Bovingdon, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Winchester College War Cloister
Pre War
Guy Dodgson was born on 11 June 1895 in Hampstead, London and baptised on 7 July 1895 at St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, Middlesex, the son of Henley Frederick Dodgson and Helen (German) Dodgson and one of three boys. At the time of his birth the family were living at 11 Gainsborough Gardens, Primrose Hill and his father was a stockbroker.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Frognal Rise, Hampstead, where his father's occupation is given as Stockbroker and they had four servants.
He was educated at Reverend Page's preparatory school in Eastbourne, Sussex, followed by Winchester College from 1908-13. Guy was listed as a boarder at Winchester College on the 1911 Census. His parents, brother Philip and cousin Arthur Dodgson were living at Green Lodge, Bovingdon on the 1911 Census with five servants. He then attended the Conservatoire, Stuttgart, Germany from 1913 to study music and luckily was at home for the holidays when war broke out.
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. They lived at The Close, Salisbury and later at The Green Lodge, Bovingdon.
Wartime Service
Guy obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant on 28 Oct 1914 with the Hertfordshire Regiment and entered France on 25 June 1917 and in October was appointed Intelligence Officer at Brigade H.Q.
At his own request he returned to his regiment in May 1918 but was immediately wounded in a gas attack on 11 May at Fonquevillers, which wiped out most of the Battalion, and was invalided home. Once recovered, he returned again to his Regiment in September 1918 at Caudry. He was seriously wounded on 4 November 1918 during the Final Advance in Picardy at the Battle of the Sambre and evacuated to Caudry Casualty Clearing Station where he died ten days later from pneumonia. He was the Battalion's last casualty of the war.
He died on 14 November 1918, aged 23 and is buried at Caudry British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother received pay owing of £257 8s 3d. She was granted probate of his estate on 19 August 1919 with effects of £513 14s 6d. Brother of Captain Francis Dodgson who was killed in action on 10 Jul 1916 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. Guy appears 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 Francis, are in Salisbury Cathedral.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, Dick West, Jonty Wild, www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/hertsregt., www.winchestercollegeatwar.com.
