Hodges, F W
FRANCIS WILLIAM HODGES
Remembered with honour Chatby Memorial.
He enlisted in Watford; was entitled to the British War medal, and was drowned when the hospital ship Osmaniah was hit by a torpedo and sank, en route to Egypt. Unfortunately, Francis’ Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing.
There is an In Memoriam for Francis in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 4 January 1919.
Son of Walter and Emily Ada (nee WALDEN) HODGES of Watford.
His parents married 15 April 1895 at St Botolph’s, Brampton, Northants. Walter died 14 April 1927 in Watford aged 60, and was buried 20 April in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford; Emily died 9 October 1929 in Watford aged 58, and was buried 12 October, also in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
Francis was born 1896 in Northampton, and baptised 30 August 1896 at St Mary’s, Far Cotton, Northampton. He worked for the London & North Western Railway Company as a cleaner at the locomotive shed, Watford.
On the 1901 Census, aged 4 he lived in Far Cotton, with his parents and one sibling. On the 1911 Census, an errand boy aged 14, he lived in Chelmsford, Essex, with his parents and one sibling.
Service number
290112Rank
SapperUnit
98th Light Railway Train CrewRegiment
Date of death
31/12/1917Age at death
21Place of death
Memorial(s)
- 1st S.W. Herts Scout Troop [in St Mary's Parish Church Watford] (4)
- Abbot's Langley Herts War Memorial (17)
- Aldbury Herts War Memorial (1)
- Aldenham Herts War Memorial (located in Letchmore Heath Herts) (8)
- All Saints Church Croxley Green Herts (12)
- All Saints Church Harrow Weald Middx (2)
- All Saints Church Hertford (1)
- All Saints Church King's Langley Herts (1)
- All Saints Church Leavesden Herts (31)
- All Saints Church Witham Essex (3)