Francis Joseph Hodgson
Francis Joseph Hodgson was the fourth son of Joseph William Hodgson, inspector of railway material, born in 1847/9, and his wife Jane, both from Cumberland. In the 1901 Census Francis was listed as aged 13 and a Clerk at the Post Office in Workington where he had been born - home address there 1 Lorne Villas. He was not enumerated in Census ten years later - it seems that he had emigrated to New Zealand and while there was working in a mine. Data from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force War Accounts and Records Office show that he joined the NZEF as a Sapper and was wounded, apparently at Gallipoli. In November 1915 he was recorded as being in Malta. He came to London 19 March 1916, was admitted to Walton Hospital and then transferred to Woodcote Park, Epsom. He married Mary Tomlinson on 12 June 1916 in Forest Hill Church. He was discharged 2 September 1919 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
On Army forms he gave his wife's name and his address as The Gables, Wheatley. The 1921 Register of Electors confirms this as where they lived after the War. Born in 1887, Francis died in July 1987, just a few days short of his 100th birthday.