Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Grocer's assistant Henry Hodgkinson, 29, ex-student of Auburn Public School and member of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows friendly society, lived with his wife and two children at 6 Manchester Road, Auburn. Enlisting in Holsworthy September 1915, Hodgkinson was in Australian training camps for six months prior to embarkation.
On 8 March 1916, Driver Hodgkinson embarked on the Star of England along with at least four other Auburn men: blacksmith Robert Montgomery, labourer Herbert (AH) Creagh, labourer Peter Myers and railway carriage builder Fredrick John Webber.
Arriving in Egypt in April 1916, all these Auburn men were posted to battalions in the 5th Australian Division. Hodgkinson was taken on strength of the 53rd Battalion. The division moved to the Western Front disembarking in Marseilles on 29 June 1916.
Less than 10 days after arriving in the Nursery Sector, four of the Auburn men off the Star were involved in the disastrous feint at Fromelles on 19-20 July 1916. Myres and Webber were killed and Montgomery was taken prisoner. Hodgkinson had received a gunshot wound to the thigh on 17 July 1916 and was in the 3rd London General Hospital when the Fromelles attack took place.
After seven months in the United Kingdom, Hodgkinson returned to his unit in February 1917. He survived the Battles of Bullecourt in May 1917, battles in which the 53rd Battalion lost three officers and 113 other ranks. Moving up into Belgium, he also survived the 3rd Battle of Ypres and the extremely cold winter of 1917-1918.
After enjoying leave in Britain in February 1918, Hodgkinson was brought back down to France to defend the city of Amiens. He was killed in action in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918. He was one of 10 Auburn Memorial men who were killed in action in the Somme facing the German attacks over March and April 1918, the others being: John Arnot, Ernest Beesley, Leslie Brown, Hugh Callaghan, Samuel Grindrod, Edward Maguire, Frank Munro, Theophilus Perry, and Thomas Speak.
With more than two and a half years of service in the AIF, Hodgkinson was among the longer serving of Auburn Memorial men.
Hodgkinson was buried in the Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, near the town of Corbie in the valley of the Somme. His widow chose the following inscription for his grave: NUMBERED WITH THE SAINTS IN GLORY EVERLASTING.
The Daours Communal Cemetery Extension has the distinction of having a greater representation of Australian units than any other Western Front cemetery. Almost every infantry battalion is represented as well as Army Service Corps, Machine-Gun Corps, Field Artillery, Field Ambulance, Engineers, Pioneers, Trench Mortar batteries and Light Horse. It contains five Auburn men, including Hodgkinson, all casualties of actions in the last year of the war. Lidcombe Memorial man Private John Poxon of the Auburn Presbyterian Church is also buried in this cemetery.
Henry Hodgkinson is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Boys Public School Great War Honour Roll
- Auburn Public School First World War Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
