Francis Herbert Hodgson

• Matriculated: 1914

• Born: 11 March 1898

• Died: 19 November 1918

• Regiment: Royal Air Force

• Grave/Memorial: Prémont British Cemetery: III.B.18

 Family background

b. 11 March 1896 at “Wharton”, Sherborne, Dorset, as the younger son of Charles Herbert Hodgson (1857–1922) and Leonora Mary Cecilia Hodgson (née Saunders) (1870–1912) (m. 1893), Wallace House, Sherborne, Dorset. At the time of the 1901 Census the family (plus four servants) was living at Abbey Grange, Sherborne. One or both of Hodgson’s parents later lived at Flat 3, 4 Bodorgan Rd, Bournemouth, Hampshire. At the time of the death of his younger son, Hodgson’s father was living at Wallace House, Sherborne, Dorset.

 

Parents and antecedents

Hodgson was the grandson of the Revd Richard Hodgson (1829–95), a graduate of The Queen’s College, Oxford (BA 1851; MA 1855). He was ordained Deacon in 1851 and Priest in 1852 by the Bishop of Lichfield. From 1851 to 1853 he was Curate of Buxton, Derbyshire; from 1853 to 1858 he was Curate in charge of Warton with Freckleton, Lancashire; from 1858 to 1870 he was Rector of Pilton, Northamptonshire; and in 1870 he became the Vicar of Saint Margaret’s, Dunham-Massey, in the Diocese of Cheshire, a cure of 3,252 souls with an income of £400 p.a. In 1851 he married Caroline Sheppard (c.1828–89).

Hodgson’s father was a Scholar of Hertford College, Oxford, from 1876 to 1880 (BA 1880; MA 1884). He became an Assistant Master at Sherborne School, Dorset and left £23,976 6s. 7d.

Hodgson’s mother was the daughter of a clergyman who, before becoming the Rector of Maperton, Somerset, in 1857, a cure of 221 souls with a gross income of £450 p.a., had been a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.

 

Siblings and their families

Hodgson’s brother was Richard Eveleigh (1894–1918), who was killed in action on 15 September 1918, aged 24, serving as a Flying Officer in 204 Squadron, Royal Air Force.

Richard Eveleigh was educated at Sherborne School (where he was a Colour Sergeant in the Officers’ Training Corps) and New College, Oxford (where he was a Lance-Corporal in the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps). He began his time in the forces as a Private in the 4^th (Extra Reserve) Battalion of the King’s (Liverpool Regiment), which was formed in Seaforth, Liverpool, on 4 August 1914, and applied for a Commission in the Special Reserve of Officers on 11 September 1914. It is likely that Richard Eveleigh crossed to France with the 4^th Battalion on 6 March 1915, where it was attached to the Sirhind Brigade of the Indian Expeditionary Force which took part in the Battles of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March 1915), Aubers Ridge (9 May 1915), Festubert (15–25 May 1915) and Loos (25 September–13 October 1915). Nevertheless, by 29 December 1915 Richard Eveleigh was developing a serious medical history and was examined by a Medical Board. On 5 March 1916 he was declared unfit for General Service because of synovitis of the knee (inflammation of the synovial membrane in the knee joint); the judgement was repeated at another Medical Board on 27 May 1916; and on 4 July 1916 a third Board rated him unfit for service because of a permanently recurring condition. For some years he had also been prone to what would now be called a rumbling appendix and suffered a particularly bad attack in August 1916, followed by a similar attack on 17 April 1917.

 

 

As a result, he was sent back to England, crossed from Le Havre to Southampton on 20/21 April on the SS Panama (1902; RFA Maine from 1920; scrapped 1947) and underwent an appendectomy on 25 April. He then appeared before a Medical Board on 30 April and was given six weeks of light duties, followed by a second Board on 14 June 1917, a third Board on 16 July 1917 (when he was deemed fit enough for two months of Home Service), and a fourth and final Medical Board on 15 September 1917, when he was declared cured and fit for General Home Service.

But incredibly, on 6 December 1917 Richard Eveleigh was declared fit enough for flying duties, applied to join the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), and was accepted for training as a pilot. He learnt to fly at the London and Provincial Flying School, Edgware, and was finally transferred to the Central Flying School at Hendon as a Second Lieutenant on probation on 23 March 1918. He joined No. 62 Training Squadron on 4 April 1918, received his wings and Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate on 12 April 1918, and was confirmed in the rank of Second Lieutenant on 19 April 1918. After training at the Air Gunnery Fighting School, Frinton, Essex, on a course that began on 5 July 1918, Richard Eveleigh went to France in August 1918, where he was attached as a pilot to 204 Squadron (No. 64 Wing), RAF, and as a member of which Richard Edward Geoffrey Eyre, the brother of Cyril Askew Eyre, had been killed in action 13 months previously, on 21 October 1917.

This Squadron had begun its existence as the Dover Defence Flight and then become 4 Squadron, RNAS, on 25 March 1915. On 3 August 1915 it moved to Eastchurch, Hampshire, where, on 27 August 1915 as part of No. 4 Wing, RNAS, it became the first RNAS Squadron to go abroad, in this case Belgium and France, where it was based at Ostend and Dunkirk and tasked with defending the area against German airships. On 31 December 1916 it was reformed at Coudekerque, just to the south of Dunkirk near the French coast, and was the first Squadron to be equipped with the Sopwith 1½ Strutter, so-called because of the W form of its centre-section spars. The 1½ Strutter was also the first British two-seat tractor fighter, the first Royal Flying Corps machine to be fitted with a Scarff ring for the Observer’s backwards-facing Lewis Gun, and the first to enter Squadron service with a synchronized machine-gun firing through the propeller. The Squadron began offensive flights with these in early February 1917, but when the 1½ Strutter soon proved inferior to the new generation of German Albatros fighters, it was replaced by the more advanced Sopwith Pup before the Squadron moved to Bray Dunes, on the coast near Dunkirk, in March/April 1917, from where it began to fly offensive patrols in May 1917. In June 1917 it was re-equipped again, this time with Sopwith F.1 Camels, a highly manoeuvrable fighter aircraft that was not easy to fly but had a maximum speed of 115 mph, could reach 15,000 feet in just over 20 minutes, and was the first British aircraft to be equipped with twin Vickers machine-guns that were synchronized to fire through the propeller. Pilots used to joke that it would get you a wooden cross, to the Red Cross, or a Victoria Cross. From January to March 1918 the Squadron was resting and re-equipping at Walmer, Kent, and by 31 May 1918, when it was back at Bray Dunes, the Squadron was fully equipped with 24 Camels – three flights of eight aircraft – whose major tasks were escort work and dealing with the increased enemy air activity in the coastal region that became noticeable starting in late June 1918, when Allied aircraft began to encounter larger and more numerous hostile fighting formations and the Germans were directing more substantial bombing raids against the British aerodromes in the Dunkirk area.

By the time that Richard Eveleigh joined the Squadron in August 1918, it had become part of the recently created RAF and re-designated as 204 Squadron in 64 Wing, and was stationed at Téteghem, a few miles equidistant from Dunkirk and Coudekerque. But on 13 August 1918, Richard Eveleigh began to suffer from medical problems once again, and was admitted to No. 14 General Hospital at Wimereux, a few miles down the French coast from Calais; he was discharged on 23 August 1918. While on his first action over the German trenches on 15 September 1918, he was killed in action by machine-gun fire from the ground and crashed west of the British lines near Nieuwpoort. He was buried in Koksijde (Coxyde) Military Cemetery, Belgium (just up the coast to the east of De Panne), in Grave II.K.17, with the inscription: “Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus tam cari capitis?” (“What shame or limit should there be in our grief for a head so beloved?”: Horace, Odes 1:24 [stanza 1], ‘To Vergil on the Death of Quintilius’). He left £2,595 18s. 11d.

 

 

 

Fiancée

At the time of his death Francis Hodgson was engaged to Violet Mabel Grimley (c.1896 [Calcutta]–1986 [Victoria BC, Canada]) of St Crispin’s, Sherborne. She later became (Alan-)Williams after her marriage in 1920 to Alan Copland Alan-Williams (later Lieutenant-Colonel, DSO; 1888–1971 [Victoria BC, Canada]); two children.

One of their two children, Douglas Blundell Alan-Williams (1921 [Canada]–1941), died on 7 October 1941 while serving as a Pilot Officer in the RAF with No. 41 Operational Training Unit, a Squadron formed at Old Sarum in September 1941 to train tactical reconnaissance pilots on Westland Lysanders and Curtiss P40C Tomahawks. He was killed, probably while flying a Tomahawk, while trying to make a forced landing at Stalbridge, Dorset, and is buried in nearby St Mary Magdalene Churchyard, Castleton, near Sherborne, Dorset.

 

Education

Hodgson attended Connaught House Preparatory School, Weymouth, Dorset, from February 1905 to February 1910, and then Harrow School as an Entrance and Moundell Scholar from March 1910 to 1914. While he was there, he won the Lower School Prize for Shakespeare and, in 1914, the Roundel Leaving Scholarship. He also became a Lance-Corporal in the Band of the school Officers’ Training Corps. He matriculated as a Demy in Natural Science at Magdalen on 13 October 1914, having been exempted from Responsions as he possessed an Oxford & Cambridge Certificate. But in September 1914 he took an Additional Responsions paper on the French politician and historian Adolphe Thiers (1797–1877) – who is now best remembered for his ten-volume history (1823–27) of the French Revolution and his bloody suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871 – and this enabled him to take just one component of the First Public Examination in Hilary Term 1915 (Holy Scripture). In the same term he also took Group C3 (The Elements of Physics), and in the term after that, the Natural Sciences Preliminary Examination in Zoology and Botany, and Chemistry. But he subsequently sat no more examinations at Oxford and left without taking a degree. On 28 September 1915 the diarist and Fellow of Magdalen C.C.J. Webb noted in his Diary that he had received a letter from Hodgson “saying that he was learning to fly & was not coming up next term”. When he left Magdalen, he intended to read Medicine and later on in Summer 1915 he began the necessary training at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London W2. Later in the war he considered becoming a science teacher and so stayed on Magdalen’s books until 1917.

 

 

 

War service

An attack of appendicitis in December 1914 prevented Hodgson from joining up in the early months of the war. But once he had recovered, he began, in late September 1915, to learn to fly at Beatty’s Flying School at Hendon. He received his Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate on 24 January 1916 and on 23 February 1916 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant on probation in the Special Reserve of Officers of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). On the same day he reported for flying training at Brooklands and Croydon with No. 2 Training (Reserve) Squadron, where he trained for military flying on Caudron G3 biplanes. On 27 May 1916 he graduated as a pilot in the RFC and on 8 June 1916 he went to France, where he joined No. 15 Squadron, RFC, in which H. Brereton became a Flying Officer Observer on 26 August 1916.

No. 15 Squadron was formed from a flight of No. 1 Reserve Squadron at South Farnborough, Hampshire, on 1 March 1915. It worked at Hounslow from 13 April to 11 May 1915 and was then stationed at Dover until 23 December 1915, equipped with the Royal Aircraft Factory’s B(lériot) E(xperimental) 2(c). During this stay, one of its pilots, John Aidan Liddell (1888–1915), was awarded the VC for his exploits on 31 July while on a reconnaissance mission over the area Ostend/Bruges/Ghent. The BE2, a twin-seat (tractor) biplane, had been in service with the RFC for about three years and the BE2(c), of which c.3,500 were built, was less a modified and more a redesigned version of its forebears. It had new wings with ailerons, not wing-warping, as their control surfaces and the wings had increased dihedral and forward staggering, its fin was enlarged to prevent swinging on take-off and improve the aircraft’s capacity for spin recovery, and it had a stream-lined cowling, giving it a much more modern appearance. Although, unlike the FE2(b) and FB5 (see A.S. Butler and H.M.W. Wells), it had a single, enclosed fuselage, its V-8 engine gave it a similar top speed (72 mph) and ceiling (10,000 feet), which it could reach in 45 minutes. Because of its well-known stability, the BE2(c) was unsuitable as a fighter, but ideal as a light bomber and photo-reconnaissance machine. Nevertheless, by late 1915 it, too, had become an easy target for the Fokker E(indecker)1 monoplane fighter and was nicknamed “kaltes Fleisch” (“dead meat”) by the German pilots. No. 15 Squadron arrived at St-Omer, in France, on 23 December 1915 and was first stationed at Droglandt, near Cambrai, as part of No. 2 Wing, where it was used mainly for reconnaissance in the Courtrai/Menin area.

Once the 4^th Army was formed on 5 February 1916 under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson (1864–1925), No. 15 Squadron, in accordance with Trenchard’s restructuring of the RFC, became part of it on 8 March 1916 and was sent to Marieux, halfway between Amiens and Arras and to the west of the Somme front. During the run-up to the Battle of the Somme it was engaged in escort duties, keeping watch on enemy trenches and train movements, offensive patrolling, counter-battery observation for the artillery, light bombing and photographic reconnaissance on behalf of VIII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston (1864–1940), who had gained a reputation for incompetence as a result of his handling of the Corps on Gallipoli during the previous year. In the Somme Sector, VIII Corps was initially responsible for the Northern Sector of the British line between the Rivers Ancre and Serre and opposite Gommecourt and Beaumont Hamel. On 25 June, the Squadron took part in the RFC’s mass assault on German kite balloons that were used for observation; on 6 July its size was increased from 12 to 18 machines; and on 7 July it was joined by Lieutenant William Barker (1894–1930), who would become Canada’s top flying ace during World War One with 52 victories, and Canada’s most highly decorated soldier ever, winning the VC, the DSO and bar and the MC and two Bars. When V Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Fanshawe (1859–1952), replaced VIII Corps in the Northern Sector in mid–late August 1916, No. 15 Squadron became part of the new Corps and was used mainly for bombing missions, such as the one on 6 September 1916, when five BE2(c)s from No. 4, No. 7 and No. 15 Squadrons dropped one and a half tons of bombs on the Lagnicourt Aerodrome, at Bertincourt, about seven miles east of Bapaume, where the German ace Oswald Boelcke (1891–1916) had set up Jastas (Jagdstaffeln) 1 and 2, crack German Squadrons, on 22 and 10 August 1916 respectively.

 

 

During his three months with No. 15 Squadron, Hodgson was engaged in combat at least twice. At 09.35 hours on 12 August 1916, while flying at 7,500 feet on an artillery patrol over Beaumont Hamel, on the Somme front, Hodgson later reported that his Observer, Second Lieutenant Wood:

saw an H[ostile] A[ircraft] approaching us […]. I looked behind & saw another coming up behind us, rather higher than we were. I waited to engage the first until the second was close behind us, when I saw a third approaching behind and a little below and closer than the second. My observer then fired at the first from the front gun at about 200 yds range; the machine turned away from us. I then turned and engaged the third machine at about 100 yds range. Lt. Wood saw some tracers enter the machine. Two more machines now appeared above me. I turned again and engaged on the rear gun at under 100 yds. Lt. Wood fired about 20 rounds from the rear gun, and the machine turned away. Two or three machines kept firing at long range at us from slightly above, and a fourth approached us from behind our own lines: I turned and Lt. Wood fired a drum into it at about 10–20 yds range, the machine being slightly below and in front: it went away and did not return. After a little more firing all five machines disappeared, going towards Achiet-le-Grand. The fight lasted for about 15 minutes, during which each machine attacked us twice. There were no more of our machines in sight. Faulty sear caused two stoppages. Damage to machine. Right rear tail-boom smashed. Right elevator boom smashed. Right rear top main spar of main plane shot through. Right top longeron smashed near end of fuselage. Left top aileron spar shot through. Several holes in fabric. Right bottom aileron: 2 ribs shot through. Top right main plane: 2 ribs shot through. 1 bullet through left wheel base. 1 bullet through fin.

Five days later, at 09.45 hours on 17 August 1916, while flying at 7,000 feet on artillery observation over Grandcourt, also on the Somme front, with Captain Helm as the Observer, Hodgson noted, while flying back towards the British lines, that they

observed an H. A. behind us approaching a B.E.2(c). After looking for others above us I commenced to dive and was immediately fired on from above. Being unable to see any H. A. above, I dived again, and was again fired on. This time we saw an H. A. about 200 yards above us. Capt. Helm fired from the rear gun: the H. A. thereupon dived very steeply and flattened out just below the clouds & flew back towards Bapaume. About three minutes later we were approached from below by another H. A. and fired at him at about 200 yards range from the rear gun. The H. A. at once dived down until below the clouds, flattened out close to the ground, and flew back in the direction of Bapaume.

Judging from these reports, Hodgson was already a very skilful pilot who knew how to keep his head in a very dangerous situation and fly a damaged aircraft without panicking. He may have been in combat more than twice while he was with No. 15 Squadron; the Squadron records are visibly incomplete and anyway, we read elsewhere in the dossiers that because of No. 15 Squadron’s new role and the increased availability of fighter aircraft for protection, it logged barely half a dozen combats during the following month of September 1916 “and these were all of an indecisive character resulting in the enemy retiring after an exchange of shots, usually made at a considerable range”. But on 6 September 1916, Hodgson’s luck changed for the worse, and he was severely wounded by machine-gun fire during a dog-fight with a Fokker biplane while returning without an Observer from the three-Squadron raid on German aerodromes between Bertincourt and Vélu, just to the north-east. Nevertheless, his ability as a pilot prevailed and he managed to bring his machine down safely behind the British lines even though he himself had been hit in eleven places. A medical report records that some of the wounds were large: one, on the outer side of his left thigh, measured 8 inches by 6 inches; several others were the size of a five-shilling piece – nearly 1½ inches in diameter; and his right thigh had suffered several small, penetrating wounds. So on 9/10 September 1916 he was brought back to England aboard the HS Maheno, a 5,000-ton ocean liner that had been turned into a hospital ship by public subscription and had, since 3 July 1916, sailed between Le Havre and Southampton bringing back the wounded from the Somme. As a result of his wound, Hodgson was transferred into the RFC’s Special Reserve and awarded a gratuity of £145 16s. 8d. (increased on 12 July 1917 by an additional gratuity of £62 10s.). Although, on 11 September 1916, a Medical Board classed him as “unfit for service” and sent him on sick leave for three months, his wounds healed well even though his recovery was slowed down by an attack of tonsillitis, and on 27 October 1916 he was considered well enough to undertake “light duties”, which he performed at Farnborough, Hampshire. Other Medical Boards followed, but it was not until 30 April 1917 that he was judged to be fit enough for “Home Service” and allowed to undertake “graduated flying” with No. 17 Training (Reserve) Squadron, Port Meadow, Oxford, with effect from 11 May 1917. On 15 June 1917 a final Medical Board judged that he was fit enough to return to “General Duties” after one month’s flying in England and on 1 July 1917 he was promoted Lieutenant (Flying Officer).

Hodgson returned to France in mid–late July 1917 and on 21 July 1917 reported for duty with No. 4 Squadron, RFC, which had been formed at Farnborough in 1912 and arrived in France as a reconnaissance Squadron on 16 August 1914. In June 1917 the Squadron had been re-equipped with R[econnaissance] E[xperimental] 8s, a faster and more powerful tractor biplane than the BE2(c), with a ceiling of 13,500 feet, a top speed of 103 mph, and the ability to climb to 6,500 feet in 21 minutes. It could also carry two 100lb bombs and was armed with either two or three machine-guns, one firing forward through the propeller and the other one or two mounted on a swivel ring in the rear cockpit for use by the Observer/Gunner. When it was first delivered to the RFC (52 Squadron) in November 1916, it was more difficult to fly than the BE2(c), prone to spin, and not very manoeuvrable – making it more easy meat for German fighters until the RFC began to gain the ascendancy in the air in late Spring–Summer 1917. But by the time that Hodgson began to fly the RE8, it, too, was recognized as an excellent reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber, and it finally equipped 34 British Squadrons.

A large amount of documentation concerning No. 4 Squadron’s flying history during World War One has been lost, but three Operations Record Books have survived, covering November 1917 and January 1918, and they tell us a great deal about how the Squadron in general and Hodgson in particular spent their time. November 1917 must have been a very boring month since Hodgson and his Observers – they were not always the same officer – were not engaged in any major battle and flew only eight missions, not least because of adverse weather conditions – rain, low cloud and fog; and only one of these lasted significantly longer than two hours. On 26 November, despite the low cloud that made observation difficult, Hodgson and his Observer were in the air for the best part of four hours, mainly ranging No. 101 Siege Battery onto a hostile German battery. Of the other seven missions, one, on 12 November, ended in a crash landing (1 hour 30 minutes), one, on 29 November, involved showing the front line to an artillery officer for instructional purposes (45 minutes) and the other five were artillery patrols that lasted on average about 1 hour and 45 minutes (16, 19, 24 and 30 November), with one (14 November) lasting a mere 35 minutes because of bad visibility. Most of the six artillery patrols were flown over Armentières and Lille, and only one, on 19 November, extended as far as La Bassée, well to the south, during which the Observer fired 300 rounds from 2,000 feet at the German trenches along the La Bassée Canal. Only one other of the artillery patrols involved aggressive actions against the enemy: on 30 November Hodgson and his Observer fired 470 rounds at the Germans from 1,700–2,000 feet.

From 3 to 17 December 1917 Hodgson was on leave in England, and after he returned to 4 Squadron, the weather improved significantly in January 1918, enabling him and his Observers to fly 23 missions in all, and on three occasions two on the same day (3, 4 and 25 January). On the whole, Hodgson’s RE8 went up alone, but occasionally flew as part of a group of aircraft, as on 30 January, when seven RE8s went out on a successful night bombing mission that lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. Sometimes the missions lasted for only a short time, as on 3 January, when Hodgson, flying solo, delivered a new machine to the Squadron (20 minutes), and 28 January, when Hodgson and his Observer flew on a weather test (20 minutes). On other occasions the missions lasted only about an hour, as on 13 January, when Hodgson and his Observer went on a reconnaissance mission lasting one and a quarter hours; on 26 January, when Hodgson, flying solo, went on a night bombing raid lasting 1 hour and 10 minutes, and 29 January, when Hodgson took another officer up for 1 hour and 5 minutes in order to improve his knowledge of aerial photography and formation flying. But because the missions were relatively unhindered by rain, low cloud or fog, most lasted three to four hours (c.350 miles) and involved a much larger area that was bounded by Lille, Douai, Armentières, Aubers and Fromelles. Judging from the subsequent reports, these missions were much more interesting and varied than those of November 1917, for Hodgson and his Observer were tasked with looking for, and where possible photographing, troop movements, construction work and fortifications on or near the front line, unusual train movements, balloons, concentrations of anti-aircraft guns, and artillery activity; and during 17 of the 23 flights they dropped bombs, mainly two to four 25lb bombs, albeit fairly randomly and probably to no great effect. In both months it is, however, noticeable that enemy aircraft were rarely glimpsed and that no combat reports were filed.

Hodgson was promoted Acting Captain on 17 January 1918 and an Acting Flight Commander three days later. On 1 February 1918 he was confirmed as a Flight Commander and Temporary Captain. He was Mentioned in Dispatches in February 1918 (London Gazette, no. 30,691, 17 May 1918, p. 5,943), given a week’s leave in France from 11 to 17 February, confirmed as a Flight Commander in No. 4 Squadron on 1 April 1918, the day when the Royal Flying Corps merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force, and sent on leave in England from 5 to 19 April 1918. In May 1918 he attended a Staff course in Cambridge and was subsequently offered a Staff appointment, but he refused it as he wished to return to the front. Hodgson seems to have fallen sick or been injured on 9 June 1918 since he was sent to a home establishment on 16 June and put on ground duties for four weeks, and on 4 August 1918, while still in England, he was declared unfit for a further four weeks.

On 26 October 1918 Hodgson flew from a Home Squadron to No. 35 Squadron in France as the Flight Commander of ‘A’ Flight. The Squadron had been formed at Thetford, Norfolk, on 3 February 1916, arrived in France on 23 January 1917, and was now part of No. 15 Wing. Although tasked primarily with reconnaissance for the artillery, the Squadron dropped 2,548 bombs (29 tons) and fired 283,000 rounds of small arms ammunition between 8 August and 11 November 1918 alone. When Hodgson joined it, the Squadron had been stationed at Élincourt, nine miles south-east of Cambrai, since 14 October 1918 and had just been equipped with the Armstrong Whitworth FK8, a large, two-seat reconnaissance aircraft whose performance was not obviously superior to that of the RE8. But by now the German Army was retreating en masse, and together with No. 80 Squadron, No. 35 Squadron was attached to “Bethell’s Force” as 5^th Brigade’s Advanced Force, whose work consisted in long-range photo-reconnaissance and contact patrols. Their main task was to keep abreast of the enemy’s position, harass him where possible, and facilitate artillery shoots on strong-points, railways and crossroads. Between 26 October and the afternoon of 4 November 1918, when Hodgson was slightly wounded in the leg by a machine-gun bullet from the ground and had to land with No. 8 Squadron because of the fog over his own base, he and his Observer, Lieutenant William Harris Valentine (b. 1895 in Dundee), who had begun his military service in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and who survived the war, went on six Artillery Patrols. These took place mainly in the afternoon and once just after dawn, lasted between an hour and 4 hours 10 minutes, and focused on the circular area formed by the southern half of the Forêt de Mormal and bounded, in clockwise order, by Hecq, Locquignol, Berlaimont, Morailles, Landrecies and Preux-au-Bois. On 30 October they reported that the front was “very quiet”, on 31 October that it was “exceedingly quiet”, and on 2 November that it was “absolutely quiet – no movement of any kind”. 3 and 4 November were, however, different: on the morning of 3 November they reported that “considerable movement of H[orse-drawn] T[ransport] & M[otor] T[ransport] was seen, moving steadily in all directions”; on the morning of 4 November they called for the British artillery to put down fire on enemy artillery near Englefontaine, just north-west of Hecq; and in the afternoon, despite low cloud and poor visibility, they called more artillery down on enemy artillery near Fontaine-au-Bois, Bois-L’Éveque, Locquignol and Maroilles. Similarly, if an opportunity arose, they dropped at least one of their four 25lb bombs per flight and loosed off with a machine-gun. Hodgson also made one test flight (30 minutes), two flights over the front line (1 hour 40 minutes and 35 minutes), and was, on 4 November 1918, compelled by engine trouble to make a forced landing with No. 218 Squadron. Because of his wound, which did not require a stay in hospital, Hodgson stayed on the ground from 5 to 9 November.

During Hodgson’s brief time with No. 35 Squadron, his new Commanding Officer, Wing-Commander John Adrian Chamier, the younger brother of Francis Capper Chamier, had quickly singled him out as an exceptionally talented young officer who had the ability to command a Squadron, and so, on 10 November 1918, he appointed Hodgson as the Commanding Officer of ‘O’ Flight, RAF, an independent flight of Bristol Fighter F2Bs which was being formed to accompany the Army of Occupation to Germany and to which ten officers were transferred from No. 35 Squadron. The first two prototypes of the two-seat Bristol Fighter F2B – known colloquially as the “Brisfit” and the “Biff” – had first flown on 9 September and 25 October 1916 respectively, and from 18 July 1917 the final service model of the F2B was increasingly issued to the RFC’s fighter-reconnaissance Squadrons as a replacement for the obsolete BE2(c) and the F2B’s flawed predecessor, the Bristol Fighter F2A. Powered by the Rolls-Royce Falcon III engine (275 h.p.), the F2B had a top speed of 125 mph, could climb to 10,000 feet in just over 11 minutes, had a service ceiling of 20,000 feet, and was much more manoeuvrable than other large bi-planes, making it more evenly matched with the latest Fokker aircraft. By the time that production ceased in December 1926, 4,469 had been built for various air forces around the world.

 

 

In this new capacity, Hodgson, with Lieutenant Valentine still his Observer, flew two missions on 10 November. In the morning they flew for 1 hour and 50 minutes as part of ‘O’ Flight when it moved temporarily to Flaumont-Waudrechies, c.25 miles due east of Élincourt, just outside Avesnes-sur-Helpe. And in the afternoon they flew on a reconnaissance patrol for 1 hour and 45 minutes during which they noticed Allied cavalry advancing and an evacuated German aerodrome whose possible usefulness they assessed positively. Early on the morning of 11 November, Armistice Day, accompanied by other aircraft from ‘O’ Flight, they went on a contact patrol that lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes and took them due eastwards from Flaumont-Waudrechies and into southern Belgium so that they could reconnoitre a line between Sautin in the north and Montbliart, two or three miles further south. Hodgson later reported: “Civilians were standing outside all buildings up to this limit, and waving. Sautin clear of the enemy. A few civilians were walking about in it.” But during this operation, at 10.30 hours, i.e. 30 minutes before the Armistice came into force, the patrol encountered machine-gun fire from the ground when approaching the little Belgian town of Rance which caused one of the British aircraft (F.7482) to make a forced landing. In the afternoon of 11 November most of ‘O’ Flight moved back about nine miles westwards to Le Grand Fayt, but Hodgson and Valentine went on a contact patrol lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes during which they located the aircraft that had been forced to land in the morning. Then, on the morning of 12 November, they went on a special hour-long patrol in order to drop food to the stranded Pilot and Observer – Lieutenant Heintzman and Sergeant Parker. This would be Hodgson’s last flight but one, and on his return to Élincourt he was hospitalized for two days for reasons that are obscure.

Meanwhile, as the Armistice drew nearer and then took effect, a certain laxity became apparent in the Squadron: officers were reminded by the Adjutant that they were not allowed to take photographs at will or give away confidential and secret information in letters, and on 14 November the Commanding Officer of the Squadron had the Adjutant post a notice to all ranks concerning the business of saluting. It read: “There is a very noticeable slackness in saluting. This must cease forthwith, otherwise severe disciplinary action will be taken.” Nearly a century after the event, such solemn edicts seem unnecessary, not to say absurd; but when one reads that on 19 November 1918 Hodgson died in an accident shortly after take-off while test-flying one of ‘O’ Flight’s Bristol Fighters at Élincourt after something had gone badly wrong with its engine, one cannot help wondering whether the accident had anything to do with the mood of post-victory slackness noted above. The subsequent Court of Enquiry, however, failed to make that connection or pursue further enquiries. Instead, it put the blame solely and firmly on Hodgson, judging that:

on leaving the ground the pilot put the nose down to gain more speed. He misjudged his height, and struck a small ridge in the ground with considerable force. This strained the top engine bearings at the point of junction with the longerons. When turning at 200ft the wing failed to bear the strain and broke away, causing the machine to fall out of control.

Hodgson died instantaneously in the crash, aged 22, as did the other occupant of the aircraft, Second Lieutenant John Hector Taylor (1899–1918), aged 20.

On reading the news, C.C.J. Webb noted in his Diary:

Most sad news in [the] paper: Frank Hodgson killed flying in France on Nov. 19. He was a very good fellow, very devout without affectation; he always came to see us when on leave & we had a real affection for him. I wrote to his father: he had lost his only other son in the war.

He was buried first in Romont Cemetery, south of Cambrai, then transferred to Prémont British Cemetery, Aisne, Grave III.B.18 (inscribed “R.I.P.”). Second Lieutenant Taylor is also buried there, next to Hodgson in Grave III.B.19. Hodgson left £5,871 2s. 2d.

 

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

 

Printed sources:

Günther (1924), pp. 442 and 470.

[Anon.], ‘Personal Notes: Lieutenant Alan Copland Williams’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,904 (25 September 1918), p. 4.

[Anon.], ‘Captain Francis Herbert Hodgson, RAF’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,958 (27 November 1918), p. 4.

Harrow Memorials, vi (1921), unpaginated.

Owen Thetford, ‘Bristol Fighter’, in: Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918, 5^th edition (London: Putnam, 1971), pp. 125–6.

Peter Lewis, The British Fighter since 1912: Fifty Years of Design and Development, New edition (London: Putnam, 1967), pp. 65 and 87.

Morris (1968), p. 32.

 

Archival sources:

MCA: Ms. 876 (III), vol. 2.

OUA: UR 2/1/87.

OUA (DWM): C.C.J. Webb, Diaries, MS. Eng. misc.d.1160.

RAFM: Casualty Card (Hodgson, Francis Herbert).

RAFM: Casualty Card (Hodgson, Richard Eveleigh).

AIR1/166/15/153/1.

AIR1/173/15/164/1.

AIR1/689/21/20/15.

AIR1/691/21/20/35.

AIR1/695/21/20/204.

AIR1/746/204/3/32.

AIR1/746/204/33.

AIR1/1256.

AIR1/1359/204/21/7.

AIR1/1397/204/27/8, p. 113.

AIR1/1404/204/27/24.

AIR1/1404/204/27/25.

AIR1/1404/204/27/31.

AIR1/1404/204/27/32.

AIR27/594/5.

AIR76/232, p. 156 (F.H. Hodgson).

AIR76/232, p. 186 (R.E. Hodgson).

WO339/25278 (R.E. Hodgson).

WO339/54752 (F.H. Hodgson).

 

On-line sources:

 ‘No 204 Squadron RAF’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._204_Squadron_RAF (accessed 26 October 2017).