Tonbridge School and the Great War: Harold Hodges
As we approach Remembrance Sunday and the centenary commemorations for the end of the First World War, the school is paying tribute to those among its ranks who served in the conflict, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice.
By the end of the war 415 Tonbridgians had died, roughly the size of the school at that time. The Tonbridge death rate of one in five of those who served is the average across all public schools; the overall national death rate is one in ten. Death fell disproportionately on the young. About half of Tonbridgians killed were 24 years of age or under, and half of them were aged 20 or under. Most of them were junior officers in the Army.
Over the coming days we are highlighting some of the individual stories of Tonbridgians who served in the Great War.
Today we feature Capt. Harold Augustus Hodges.
For more about Tonbridge School and the Great War, including complete records of all who served, as well as features, calendars, a timeline and wartime copies of The Tonbridgian, please click here.
Capt. Harold Augustus Hodges
MONMOUTHSHIRE REGIMENT, ATTD. SOUTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION AT HAM, MARCH 24TH, 1918. AGED 32.
Biographical extract from Tonbridge School And The Great War:
Assistant Master 1909-18.
(Absent serving from August, 1914.) Capt. Harold A. Hodges was the fifth son of Mr. and Mrs. William Abraham Hodges, of The Hill, East Bridgford, Notts. Harold Hodges was born on January 22nd, 1886, at the Priory, Mansfield Woodhouse, and went in January, 1899, to Sedbergh, where he was in the XI. for five years and Captain for the last three; in the XV. for four years and Captain for the last two. Leaving Sedbergh at Christmas, 1904, he entered Trinity College, Oxford, in January, 1905. Here at Tonbridge, and especially in School House, in which he became Senior House Tutor, he soon made his influence felt, and both to his colleagues on the staff and to the School.
From 1910 to 1912 he held a commission in the School O.T.C., and shortly before the War he had taken over the general supervision of School games. When war broke out he at once volunteered, and after three weeks’ training with the O.T.C. received a commission, dated August 28th, 1914, in the 3rd Battn. of the Monmouthshire Regiment, and joined the 1st Battn. in France in the following February.
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