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Private Angus Hodge

By Nick Hodge | November 23, 2008

david-melville-hodge-signature

In the recent research of my paternal fam­ily his­tory, I found ref­er­ence to David Melville Hodge sign­ing the papers for an Angus Hodge. These papers were per­mis­sion given by David for Angus to join the Aus­tralian Infantry in 1916 for ser­vice abroad. He was only 18 years and 2 months old.

Private Angus Hodge was my Great-Grand Uncle.

Based on my recent research into a Private Albert Lock, I knew I could find Private Angus Hodge’s ser­vice records at the National Archives. A few per­sonal notes where an injured right leg from a hors­ing acci­dent in 1912, and many teeth miss­ing. He was also noted as “stocky” at only 5 and a half feet tall. His denom­in­a­tion was lis­ted as Meth­od­ist.

Private Angus Hodge became a part of the 6th rein­force­ments for the South Aus­tralian 43rd Bat­talion, AIF. The 43rd Bat­talion made up the 11th Infantry Bri­gade, 3rd Divi­sion of the AIF. Landed in the UK dur­ing the early part of 1917. (note: This Order of Battle is extremely use­ful and the War Diar­ies of the 43rd Bat­talion are insight­ful)

At this stage, Private Hodge star­ted to have a bout of Measles and Mumps and finally arrived in France 30th July 1917. He joined the front line on 24th August 1917. Just in time for the 3rd Battle of Ypres. (also known to Aus­trali­ans as Passchendaele)

From this time, there were many times in hosip­ital lis­ted as “NYD” and “PUO” : not yet determ­ined and pyr­exia unknown ori­gin (ie: fever)

Then there is a note from 18th August 1918 “admit­ted old wounded leg, slight” back in the UK ; frac­ture from tibia, based on the fall from a horse some 6 years earlier. Repat­ri­ated back to the UK, Private Hodge spent time get­ting bet­ter at the end of the first world war.

On the 23rd Novem­ber 1918, exactly 90 years ago today, the Med­ical Board in the UK “awar­ded” Private Angus Hodge a 20% per­man­ent dis­ab­il­ity due to ser­vice; fit for home ser­vice.  He would have limped for the rest of his life.

Dis­charged from the AIF on 19th March 1919 in Adelaide. Merely a year after return­ing to Aus­tralia, Angus was dead.

Nearly 3 years away from home, Private Hodge served his coun­try. The records fail to detail the men­tal and other injur­ies suffered whilst in France.

Angus Hodge died ages 22 and is bur­ied 23rd March 1920. The grave­stone states “Son of DM and FJ.” Last res­id­ence is recor­ded as Gul­nare South Aus­tralia. Where David Melville Hodge was farm­ing at the time.

Lest We Forget.

Topics: family, history, personal, sastories | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “Private Angus Hodge”

  1. Hodge Family History | www.nickhodge.com Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am

    […] Private Angus Hodge […]

  2. gill Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    Angus Hodge’s grand­mother (Naomi Frost) was my Great great aunt her sis­ter (Jane Frost) mar­ried my great great grand­father Charles Cracknell.

  3. Nick Hodge Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    Gill–

    My research tells me that this is Angus Hodge’s Grand­mother: http://www.nickhodge.com/blog/archives/2319

    –Nick

  4. gill Says:
    November 28th, 2008 at 4:28 am

    Naomi’s father was Joseph Frost born 1788 in Shelford Essex and her mother Char­lotte Hitchin brn 1798 Lt. Bard­field they mar­ried on 25 Dec 1846. Naomi was born 1831 Finch­ing­field Essex and mar­ried John Pil­grim 18 March 1855 in Finch­ing­field then they sailed from Lon­don & Southamp­ton 27 March 1855 on the ‘Tay­mouth Castle’ which had small pox on board before arriv­ing in Adelaide. Very brave people.

    Gill

  5. Nick Hodge Says:
    November 28th, 2008 at 8:31 am

    Gill–

    100% my error. I was think­ing _paternal_ not _maternal_

    I am 100% sorry!

    Do you have any other inform­a­tion about Florence’s children?

    Nick

  6. gill Says:
    November 28th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    I have a little not a lot.

    Gill

  7. tuctorougGacy Says:
    February 16th, 2009 at 7:31 am

    Your site doesn’t cor­rectly work in safari browser

  8. Tom Fearns Says:
    April 14th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

    Hello Nick,

    Although I now live south of Mel­bourne, here in Aus­tralia, I was born in Kirk­c­aldy, atten­ded first school at Auch­ter­der­ran in Fife, lived ouside Star of Markinch before mov­ing to Easter Lath­risk Farm out­side Freuchie, nr Falk­land with my par­ents and elder broth­ers at the end of World War II. Cel­eb­rated my 73rd birth­day just a few days ago. Quite a few of the fam­ily still live in Fife as well as up in Queens­land and across the Tas­man Sea at Dunedin in New Zealand.

    Noted your Hodge/Melville con­nec­tions and that took me back quite a bit to dear old Markinch, a place where so many Melville’s were laid to rest. I remem­ber so many of the spouses of the Melville’s such as the Marshall’s as well as Eliza­beth Melville, the wife of Wil­liam Birrell, who was interred 2nd March, 1840 at Dys­art, close to my birth­place — Kirkcaldy.

    It’s a great pity that now that I’m eld­erly and dis­abled, I can never travel back to Scot­land again. How­ever, my rel­at­ives over there are very kind and keep in touch with me. The last of his gen­er­a­tion my Uncle, Wil­liam Liv­ing­stone, passed away at Auch­ter­der­ran at the begin­ning of Janu­ary at the grand old age of 96. He died leav­ing so many, many mys­ter­ies unsolved about my Liv­ing­stone ancest­ors, but, I still treas­ure some of the pho­to­graphs that he gve me of my Great-Grandfather, Samuel Liv­ing­stone, the young­est son of James Liv­ing­stone and Janet Cooper who mar­ried at North Church, Dun­ferm­line in May, 1854.

    So many stor­ies to tell, eh? My hobby of Fam­ily His­tory gives me a great deal of pleas­ure and stops me from simply veget­at­ing in an armchair!

    My very best wishes to you and yours,

    Tom Fearns.

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