Lieutenant William Noel HODGSON, Born January 3, 1893, Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Educated at Durham School & Christ Church College, Oxford. In September, 1914, Hodgson was commissioned in the 9th Battalion, the Dovonshire Regiment. The Battalion arrived in France at the end of July 1915 & was sent to the trenches near Festubert. On 25 September 1915, Lieutenant Hodgson with three other young officers & a hundred men held a captured trench for 36 hours without food or reinforcements. Hodgson was awarded the Military Cross. In February of 1916 the Battalion was in front line trenches at Fricourt. About this time Hodgson began publishing regular articles for "The Spectator", "Saturday Review" and "Yorkshire Post", describing life in the trenches. In April 1916 the Battalion was in front line trenches opposite Mametz. On the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, Hodgson was killed by German machine gun fire while taking a supply of bombs to his men in newly captured trenches near Mametz.