Great Ayton History Society
Notes on some of the men from Great Ayton who served in the Great War
George Hodgson (1893-1915)
1 George's parents, James and Jane Hodgson
George's father, James Hodgson, was born in 1852 at Stainton, where he grew up and started work
as a carpenter. He probably knew his future wife, Jane Ann Vasey, from an early age. She had been
born in West Hartlepool in 1855 but had been brought up by her grandfather, who was the village
blacksmith in Stainton.
James and Jane were married at Stainton on 14 April 1879. They had seven children: six sons and
one daughter. Their youngest two sons were killed in the Great War in 1915, George at Gallipoli in
August and James on the Western Front in December. Of the other four sons, Arthur enlisted in the
Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment and Richard in the Green Howards. The service records
of John and Charles have not been traced, but presumably they would have also served.
Census records show that James and Jane moved several times, James always being described as a
carpenter or joiner. In 1881 and 1891 the family were living at Kirklevington, but then seem to have
moved briefly to West Rounton, where George was born in 1893. By 1901 the family had moved to
Eaton's Cottages in Great Ayton. These cottages were built by Joseph Eaton, next to what was later
the Tilesheds public house on Newton Road. It is likely that James Hodgson was then working for
the Harbottle family, who had a large joinery business at Albion House on Newton Road. Young
George would have been to school in the village.
In 1911 James, Jane and their son Richard, now working as a labourer, were living at Frankfield Place,
Great Ayton.
It is likely that James Hodgson was the 'aged man' employed by Alfred Kitching at Ayton Firs who, in
May 1914, was reported as breaking his leg when he fell from railings while trying to capture an
escaped pig. James Hodgson died in 1927 and Jane Ann Hodgson died in 1932.
2 George starts work in Great Ayton
When he left school, probably in 1906, George needed to find employment. Two of his brothers
were working in service, Charles as a groom and Arthur as a butler in London. George would have
first-hand knowledge of domestic service, and the idea of working for a wealthy family probably
appealed to him. So in 1911 we find George, then 18 years of age, employed as a footman to Arthur
I'Anson at Ayton Hall, where he lodged in the servants' quarters. Arthur I'Anson was a chartered
accountant practising at the Erimus Chambers in Middlesbrough. With his wife and three children
he lived at Ayton Hall with six servants and a governess. At his cross-examination in the
Middlesbrough Bankruptcy Court in January 1914 he was accused of extravagant living by his
creditors, a charge he denied. By this time the number of servants had been reduced to three, so
perhaps George Hodgson had lost his position as a footman before he enlisted. It might be expected
that a footman would have been one of the less essential servants at Ayton Hall. In June 1914
Arthur I'Anson was declared bankrupt.
3 George enlists, trains and sails to the Mediterranean
George Hodgson enlisted at Stokesley, joining the 6th Battalion of Alexandra, Princess of Wales's
Own (Yorkshire Regiment) usually known as the Green Howards, as Private Hodgson 11366. His
service number suggests that he enlisted early in the war, probably in the late summer of 1914.
The 6th (Service) Battalion, Green Howards, was raised at Richmond on 25 August 1914 as part of
Lord Kitchener's drive to rapidly increase the size of the British Army. The 6th Battalion joined the
32nd Brigade, 11th (Northern) Division and underwent training at Belton Park near Grantham. In April
1915 they moved to Witley Camp, near Godalming in Surrey. George was probably among the 30
officers and 944 men who embarked from Liverpool on the Cunard liner Aquitania, which had been
converted into a troop ship, on the 3 July 1915. They arrived at the island of Lemnos, in the Aegean
Sea, after seven days' sailing. Lemnos had been captured by the Greek Navy from the Ottoman
Empire in 1912, and Moudros Bay was now the base for the Greek Navy.
After just a week on Lemnos, George and his fellow soldiers boarded the destroyers HMS Happy and
HMS Savage for Imbros, 'packed like herrings on the decks'. Imbros was another island taken by the
Greeks in 1912, and was to be the main base for the Gallipoli Campaign. Once on the island, George
and his comrades bivouacked on a hot sandy plain for two weeks, with no shelter of any kind,
plagued by dysentery and diarrhoea. On Imbros they were worked very hard, up at 5:45am for early
parade with practice night attacks which could go on until 3:00am the following morning.
4 The Gallipoli Campaign
The Gallipoli Campaign, or Dardanelles Campaign, was an attempt to capture Constantinople, the
capital city of the Ottoman Empire and re-open the sea route through the Dardanelles Strait to the
Black Sea and Russia. In July 1914 the Ottoman leaders had formed an alliance with Germany
against Russia, and closed the Dardanelles Straits to shipping in October, leading to the first and
indecisive British attack in November. The Battle of Gallipoli began in February 1915, with British
and French warships firing on the Ottoman land defences. After several skirmishes, an all-out
daylight attack was attempted in March. Ottoman land-based artillery strength had been severely
underestimated, and their extensive minefields undetected, resulting in heavy losses to Allied
vessels.
Faced with the failure of the naval assault, it was decided that a land campaign would be necessary
to clear the Turkish positions. In April 1915 British forces landed at Cape Helles and Australian and
New Zealand forces at Gaba Tepe, later known as Anzac. Again the strength of the Ottoman forces
was underestimated, so much so that after eight months of fighting the planned objectives for the
first day were never reached. From April to August a series of battles took place with heavy losses
on both sides, and the Allies unable to advance far beyond the landing beaches. Reinforcements
were landed at Suvla Bay during the night of 6 August 1915, including the Green Howards' 6th
Battalion. However this made little difference to the campaign, which was eventually abandoned at
the beginning of 1916 with the withdrawal of all Allied forces to Egypt. The withdrawal was the only
aspect of the campaign which could be considered a success, echoing the failure of the British
Expeditionary Force followed by the withdrawal from Dunkirk in the previous year.
The Gallipoli campaign was a costly failure for the Allies, with some 27,000 French and 115,000
British and Empire troops killed or wounded. Over half these casualties were British and Irish troops.
The complete failure of Gallipoli led to the downfall of Winston Churchill, who had been a strong
advocate of action in the Dardanelles. He left politics and enlisted as an infantry officer with the
Royal Scots Fusiliers in November 1915. For many years after he returned to politics in 1917,
whenever he stood up to speak in the House of Commons, he would be greeted with cries of
'Remember the Dardanelles' from his political opponents.
5 George faces action at Lala Bada
As darkness fell in the evening of 6 August, 25 officers and 750 men of the 6th Battalion the Green
Howards were crammed into two lighters and towed by destroyers towards Suvla Bay. Suvla Bay is
on the Aegean Sea side of the Gallipoli peninsula to the west of the Dardanelles Strait. The journey
took about two hours; for the final landing the lighters cast off from the destroyers and made for the
beach under their own power. The men each carried 220 rounds of ammunition, two days iron
rations and full water bottles, but were instructed that only bayonets were to be used in the attack,
that the rations had to last four days and that no water was to be used during the night. Their
orders were to attack the small hill of Lala Bada using only bayonets.
Chaos ensued immediately upon making the beach. Men had to get off the lighters in single file,
coming under rifle fire from the Turkish defenders in trenches on the hillside. In the pitch blackness
the officers had difficulty assembling their men. But the assault was carried through, with George
Hodgson and his fellows struggling up the hillside towards the Turkish trenches. By midnight the
Green Howards had taken Lala Bada, but at tremendous cost. The 6th Battalion lost 16 officers and
about 250 men, including George Hodgson.
The next day, 7 August, the survivors of the battle were scattered across the area just inland of Lala
Bada and around the dry Salt Lake. The few surviving officers attempted an unsuccessful attack on
to the next group of hills, and the initial momentum petered out. Given their exhausting period on
Imbros, followed by the chaos and carnage of the Lala Bada assault, some of the men were just lying
down waiting for something to happen. Elsewhere, the planned breakout from Anzac Cove had
stalled and the entire battle plan was unravelling. In a final attempt to break out of Suvla Bay and
join up with the Australians a fresh attack was made on the Turkish positions on the 21st August.
Lala Bada was the 6th Battalion's first experience of warfare. It was later said that the Lala Bada
battle was made under conditions that would have 'tried the mettle of highly experienced troops'.
In December 1915 the Division was evacuated from Gallipoli and sailed to Egypt via Imbros. By the
end of the year, when the last men of the 6th Battalion left Gallipoli, only one of the 25 officers who
landed on 6 August survived.
At least George Hodgson was spared the horrors of life in the trenches at Gallipoli in the remaining
months of 1915. There was no relief from the blazing sun during the day, at night temperatures
plummeted. Dead bodies lay all around, and were used to build up the parapets of the trenches.
The stench was appalling with maggots and flies everywhere. Turkish sniper fire and machine gun
bullets raked over the Allied positions. There were few plans, and fewer officers on the ground to
carry them out. There was hardly any fresh water, which all had to be shipped from Egypt.
Diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid were rife.
6 George Hodgson's death
The cause of George Hodgson's death will never be known, other than that he was killed in action at
Lala Bada. His body was never recovered. Sometime during that long night he met his fate; his
death is recorded as being on 7 August at Gallipoli. There were five local men killed at Gallipoli that
day whose deaths were recorded in the Middlesbrough newspaper.
7 Remembering Private George Hodgson
George Hodgson's name is on the War Memorial at Christ Church, Great Ayton. George Hodgson's
name is also on the Helles Memorial, a 30 metre high obelisk near Sedd el Bahr in Turkey, on the
southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, commemorating the 20,885 British and Empire servicemen
who died in the Gallipoli Campaign and who have no known grave.
The Hodgson family headstone in the Guisborough Road Cemetery in Great Ayton commemorates
George Hodgson, with his father, mother , and brother James who was also killed in action.
Acknowledgements
Original research by George Heron, Dave and Ernie Taylor and Ian Pearce of the Great Ayton History
Society.
References
Census returns for 1871 to 1911
Mr A I'Anson's Affairs, Cross-examination today at Middlesbrough
North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbrough, 16 January 1914, page 2
Arthur I'Anson accused of extravagant living.
Births, Marriages, & Deaths, Killed in Action
North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbrough, 6 September 1914, page 4
Report of death of George Hodgson.
The Wartime Memories Project – The Great War
6th (Service) Battalion, the Green Howards (Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment)
http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/greenhowards6.php
North Country News
North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbrough, 21 May 1914, page 5
James Hodgson's accident at Ayton Firs.
The Gallipoli Campaign
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
Overview of the campaign.
British Regiment at Gallipoli
Ray Westlake
Leo Cooper, 1996, and Pen and Sword Books, 2004.
Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment), Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill,
Gallipoli, 1915, pages 49 and 50
Description of the landings and attack on Lala Baba.
Letter written by Major W Boyd Shannon, 6th Battalion Green Howards, from Queen Alexandra
Military Hospital, Millbank, September 1915
www.tpkaraoke.co.uk/reports/august-1915.pdf
Detailed account of the 6th Battalion's landing and the attack on Lala Baba.
©Great Ayton History Society
8 July 2015