Lieutenant, Staffordshire Regiment
Born: December 9th 1896
Died: June 1917
Age at Death: 20
Killed in action, France, June 1917
A donation to the memorial statue has been made in honour of this soldier by Oliver Kirwan (Sc. 2014-present - below):
“If blood is the price of victory - Lord God we have had enough”
Lieutenant Arthur Egerton Hodge
Arthur Hodge was born on December 9th 1896 in Fulham, London. He was the elder son of John Hodge, a Solicitor and his wife Maud (née Curtis). His father died when he was only four and his mother therefore married again to George Stephens when in 1911. After John Hodge’s death it appears that his widow moved to Brighton, which accounts for why her son started in Hampden House in 1910, but following her remarriage she moved again to Devon, meaning that Hodge became a boarder in School House from 1911. At Brighton College Hodge was a Prefect, a member of the 1st XI Cricket team and an athlete.
Hodge’s occupation in 1914-1916 is unclear but following the passing of conscription in 1916 he joined the army on 25 July 1916 and sometime thereafter received a commission in the 1st Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment. On the 13th June 1917 during the last stages of the successful operation to capture the crest of the Messines Ridge. After losing the high ground when the attack opened on 8th June, the Germans launched a series of fierce counterattacks in an attempt to consolidate their position and it is likely that Hodge was killed in one of these.
Hodge’s grave lies in the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, Transport Farm, Ypres, Belgium.
Source: LEST WE FORGET PROJECT, Brighton College 2014/15
In February 2023, as part of the History trip to Ypres, some of our pupils visited the graves of Old Brightonians located in the Ypres area, including the grave of Arthur Hodge at the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground.
