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Pte. William Henry Hodges British Army 1st Btn. South Wales Borderers


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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

206857

Pte. William Henry Hodges

British Army 1st Btn. South Wales Borderers

from:Treherbert, Rhondda

(d.10th Nov 1917)

William Hodges was born on 10 Aug 1892 at No7, Cardigan Terrace, Nantymoel, Llandyfodwg, South Wales. He was the only son of Thomas James & Minnie Hodges. Thomas was a collier from Bristol, St. George and he had moved temporarily to South Wales to search for work in the coal mines. By the time William was old enough to work, he too, was a collier. In 1913, like many young men, disillusioned with life in the mines, William joined the 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers army regiment. Many young men saw this as a way out of the dreary and dangerous life of a pit worker.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand on June 28th 1914 set in motion a chain of events that erupted into WW1. William Hodges had been in the Tiensin area of China since enlisting in 1913. At the outbreak of war he was involved in the attack on the German-controlled port of Tsingtao. The Germans surrendered control in November 1914 and by January 1915 William had been transferred to the Gallipoli Campaign in which he was wounded on 2nd May 1915.

He was shipped back to England to recover. During his recovery he either visited or was convalescing in Liverpool. Sometime between December 1915 & March 1916 he met my Grandmother Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s first husband, Daniel Butterworth, had been killed in action 12 months earlier in France leaving her with 2 young children to support. By February 1916, William must have known that he too was going to be shipped out to France or Flanders once his recovery was complete.

I have often wondered what William & Elizabeth must have been thinking during this time. She, widowed at the age of 20, with 2 children, must have been terrified at the prospect that, without a husband to support her, she and her children could possibly be forced into a workhouse. William, a young 20 year old batchelor, who had already witnessed the horrors of the war and had narrowly escaped death in Gallipoli, was probably worried that he would not be so lucky in Flanders. His dreams of marriage and starting his own family were far from certain.

It was with this uncertainty, surrounding both their lives, that they married at the parish church of Liverpool on 16th February 1916. One month later Elizabeth was pregnant. Sometime during the summer of 1916 William took Elizabeth to meet his parents who, at this time, were living in Treherbert, Blaenrhondda, South Wales. After the trip William, now fully recovered, received his orders. He was transferred to the 1st Battalion of the South Wales Borderers. And after intensive training & exercise the Battalion set sail for France and Flanders. In November 1916, while William was away in Flanders, Elizabeth gave birth to a baby girl. She called her 'Martha' and she was my Grandmother.

In Flanders, On 6th November 1917, the town of Passchendaele was captured by Canadian forces but, the battle for the high ground to the north of Passchendaele was still raging. Allied forces including: The 1st South Wales Borderers & The Canadian 8th Army had established a defensive line on the ‘Goudberg Spur’. This spur was situated near ‘Goudberg Copse’ and was populated with small farm houses & buildings that were occupied by German forces. An attack was planned for the 10th November 1917. This was to be the last offensive of the Ypres, the Passchendaele Battles.

At 5.00am William Henry Hodges & his company would head north from 'Valour Farm' after the British Rolling Barrage had pummelled the German positions. Heavy rain had partially flooded the trenches and surrounding shell craters. The wooden ‘duck boards’, on which the soldiers walked, were submerged and if a man should slip off while carrying his full pack he would almost certainly slide into one of the many mud filled shell holes with no chance of rescue or escape.

When the barrage started the terrain was so unrecognisable that it became difficult for the artillery to locate the German positions. To make matters worse, as ‘A Company’ went over the top they ran into their own barrage causing several casualties and resulted in the battalion edging off to the right. The soldiers had trouble locating their objectives and gradually as German counter attacks became stronger the offensive stalled.

During this offensive and somewhere, in the vicinity of Goudberg on the 10th November 1917, William Henry Hodges was killed in action. The exact location is not known and his body was never found. Elizabeth received a telegram several weeks after the Battle and was devastated.

One night in a drunken rage she threw William’s medals into a coal bunker. In the dead of night Martha, now aged 5, went out and retrieved them. She kept them, safe and hidden, under her mattress for many years. Occasionally, when nobody was around, she would take them out and polish them. Martha, my Grandmother, never met her father and no photograph of him survives. She knew very little about his life and so, shortly before she died in 2002, she was thrilled to be taken to 'Nantymoel' to see the house where her father was born.

Pte.William Henry Hodges (10857) 1st Battalion. South Wales Borderers.

Not Forgotten.









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