AN UNUSUAL
1st DAY of THE SOMME 1914-1915 CASUALTY TRIO.

To:
3801. Rifleman. E.R. HODNETT
1st/9th LONDON REGIMENT (QUEEN VICTORIA'S RIFLES).

EDWIN ROY HODNETT, was from Ilford in Essex and in the 1911 census is seen living with his family at 2 Cavendish Gardens, Ilford. His father, Edwin William Thomas Skidmore Hodnett is shown as a retired gents outfitter of only 45. The family were clearly well off as Young Edwin is shown leaving over £200 in his army will, which was a very considerable sum in WW1. He enlisted in November / December 1914 and arrived in France on 14th February 1915 with barely three months training. There is also a VERY good chance that Edwin Hodnett took part in and survived the famous action at HILL 60 in which Lt Wooley won the first territorial VC of the war.

[2nd Lt WOLLEY AWARDED THE VICTORIA CROSS]
Second Lieutenant Geoffrey H Woolley was serving with 1st/9th Victoria Rifles in the fighting at Hill 60 in April 1915. On the night of 20th-21st April he and a handful of men were the only defenders on the hill and continually repelled attacks to hold the position. He encouraged the men to hold the line against heavy enemy machine gun fire and shellfire. For a time he was the only officer on the hill. When he and his men were relieved on the morning of 21st April only 14 out of the original company of 150 had survived.

Edwin Hodnett Died of Wounds or was Killed in Action on Saturday 1st July 1916, 1st Day of The Battle of The Somme, during the diversionary attack at GOMMECOURT and has No Known Grave. Preliminary research (which is backed up by his medal index card) shows that he was initially recovered from the battlefield in a badly wounded condition and died shortly afterwards. In one of his records he was initially thought to have been a prisoner of war, but clearly that was all part of the massive confusion that surrounded the tens of thousands of dead, wounded & missing of the 1st July 1916. Like so many thousands of seriously wounded men on that terrible day he clearly had to be abandoned when he succumbed to his wounds and his body was subsequently lost.









Commemorated with Eternal Honour on Thiepval Memorial to The Missing

AN EXCELLENT & EMOTIVE GROUP. NOW WITH "MINT" ORIGINAL RIBBONS AS BEFITS A BRITISH HERO OF THE SOMME
£1250