Well Known Hodgkinsons and Hodkinsons

Clement Hodgkinson, 1818 - 1893

Clement Hodgkinson was born in England in 1818, his first visit to the Australian colonies was for a period of two years in the early 1840s. 

In 1841 he accompanied stockman William Myles on an expedition into the Bellinger valley in northern New South Wales.  Myles had previously undertaken an exploration of the area himself in the previous year looking for new valleys north of Kempsey and the Macleay River.  By 1842 cedar cutters were at work at the mouth of the Bellinger River and were grazing sheep in the valley. This was no doubt partly in response to Hodgkinson’s report that, ‘The brush contained the finest cedar and rosewood I have ever seen.’

 Tanban Road, which today winds it way through the forest between Collombatti and Eungai, follows an original route used by the local Aboriginals to travel between the Macleay and Nambucca valleys. The modern road also marks the route taken by the first white explorer of the area, Clement Hodgkinson in 1843, as he trekked north from Kempsey to the Clarence River.  So determined were the local Aborigines to keep the cedar cutters and explorers off their land that they regularly attacked the cedar cutters camps and when Hodgkinson returned to the valley he was accompanied by members of the Yarrahappinni group who he hoped would explain his 'innocent' intentions to the locals. In 1845 it was estimated that there were 300 Aborigines living in the Bellinger Valley. 

After his visit, and on his return to England in 1845 he published in London a descriptive account of his journey, ‘Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay’, in which a detailed account of a kangaroo hunt was included: 

…As soon as the kangaroo is started, he bounds away for some minutes at as fast a rate as the fleetest dogs, but the latter soon gain upon him, especially if he ascends the steep slope of a range, which is peculiarly disadvantageous to his manner of progression. However, if the country is very brushy and rocky, he frequently escapes from his facility of clearing all impediments in his way, by amazing leaps. Whilst the chase lasts the horses must keep up at a very fast pace; and in the densely wooded coast country, there is ample scope for proving the mettle of one’s horses, in leaping across watercourses, and rocky brooks, clearing fallen trees, and thorny bushes, and galloping down steep ranges.

The web site: http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/aborigines/Xaborcat.html comments on some of Hodgkinson’s observations:

‘The illustrations are quite remarkable. That of the corroboree shows members of the Yarra-Hapinni tribe dancing at the conclusion of the male initiation ceremonies. The dancers "were so elaborately painted with white for the occasion, that even their very toes and fingers were carefully and regularly coloured with concentric rings, whilst their hair was drawn up in a close knot, and stuck all over with the snowy down of the white cockatoo ... In this dance, the performers arranged themselves in the form of a semicircle, and grasping the ends of their boomerangs, which are also painted with great minuteness and regularity, they swayed their bodies rapidly from right to left . Each movement of their bodies to and fro was accompanied by a loud hiss, whilst a number of other natives similarly painted, beat time with sticks, and kept up an incessant ... song. Every now and then the dancers would stop and rush, crowding together, into a circle, raising their weapons with outstretched arms, and joining with frantic energy in the song." (p. 233)

Hodgkinson was fascinated with the aborigines and included many detailed accounts of their customs and behaviour.  He finished his chapter on the aborigines with some observations on attempts to civilise them.

"indeed I think that all endeavours to make them adopt more settled habits will be useless, for what great inducement does the monotonous and toilsome existence of the labouring classes in civilized communities offer, to make the savage abandon his independent and careless life, diversified by the exciting occupations of hunting, fighting, and dancing." (p. 242)

He believed “their mental faculties” had been “too much underrated” (p. 242) and gave some examples from his own experience, concluding that, "in every thing requiring the exercise of mechanical ingenuity or dexterity, the Australian Aborigines are most apt scholars." (p. 243)’

As District Surveyor, to which position he was appointed in 1855, Clement Hodgkinson laid out the township of Warrandyte in 1856.  He was the Surveyor General of Victoria between 1857 and 1858.  A successful public career does not of course guarantee fortunate personal circumstances.  Clement’s first wife, Amelia Diana Hunt, born in London and daughter of George Hunt passed away at the age of 26 in 1855.  She had previously borne a son to Clement in 1854.  The son was named Clement Henry.

Clement married for a second time, in 1857, to Anne Smart who bore him several children.   Another son, Herbert Edmund was born in 1858 while yet another son Armand Roderick was born in 1859 but sadly died shortly after.  Lilydale township was named by John Hardy in 1859-60 who also re-named the local creek ‘Olinda’ after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, daughter of then Deputy Surveyor-General Clement Hodgkinson.

From 1860 onwards, responsibility for Government reserves was exercised by Clement Hodgkinson, who was appointed the new administrative head of the Lands Department, who, from then on, displayed a strong interest in the planning and development of Melbourne’s parks. Between 1861 and 1874 Clement Hodgkinson was the Victorian Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey. During his tenure of that position he established a thorough programme of reservation, regulation, administration and education to control the use of Victoria's natural forestry resources.  The programme he implemented and procedures he established provided a valuable model for the future forestry industry.

Designing parklands developed into a speciality of Clement Hodgkinson.  Edinburgh Gardens were laid out in 1865 as a result of Queen Victoria providing a grant of land for the gardens. The original design incorporated a number of existing creeks, ponds and billabongs although subsequent development severely detracted from the original design.  Little of the original design remains today.

Another son, Reginald Grosvenor was born in 1866 but died the following year.

In 1867 Melbourne’s Alma Park was designed as a public recreation park by Clement Hodgkinson and remains an island of natural charm within the urban environment with numerous established trees and a central shrub walk.  Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens were also laid out in that same year by Clement Hodgkinson, then assistant commissioner of lands and Survey.

A daughter, Florence Adeline was born in 1870.

Princes Park in Maryborough was a combined effort by a trio of important landscape designers in Victoria, Clement Hodgkinson, William Guilfoyle and Hugh Linaker.

Clement Hodgkinson passed away in 1893.

Many other web sites, too numerous to mention, were distilled to yield this account of Clement Hodgkinson, their generosity in making the information available for public consumption is gratefully acknowledged.

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William Oswald Hodgkinson, 1835 - 1900

William Oswald Hodgkinson was a prominent member of the entrepreneurial class in North Queensland during the early years of the 'gold rushes' and had a colourful and somewhat chequered career arising out of a presumably middle class upbringing in industrial England in the mid-nineteenth century. He was born in Handsworth, Warwickshire on the 31st March, 1835, the son of William Hodgkinson and Harriet (née Browne). He received his early education at Bewdley Park, Worcestershire before attending Birmingham Grammar School.

In 1851 he entered the Mercantile Marine as a midshipman and on arrival in Australia later that year he obtained a position as a licensing clerk at Castlemaine, Victoria. Shortly afterwards he was put in charge of the Tarnagulla Goldfield. However, in 1854 he resigned on the outbreak of the Crimean War and returned to England where he was appointed as a clerk in the Horse Guards Department in the War Office in London. In 1859, at the age of 21, he returned to Victoria and joined the Melbourne Age as a reporter and was then promoted to sub-editor. In 1860 he accompanied the initial stages of the Burke and Wills expedition and in 1861 was appointed as second-in-command of McKinley's relief expedition which ended at Port Denison in 1862.

Continuing his journalistic career he moved to Queensland where he became editor of the Rockhampton Bulletin. He started up the Rockhampton Morning News in 1864 as a bi-weekly journal with partners O'Meagher and Druery. The venture apparently failed but it was about this time that he married Kate Robertson. In 1866 he moved on into the new sugar area of Mackay where he established the Mercury newspaper, however he sold his interest and returned to Rockhampton.

In the late 1860s he was obviously struck by gold fever and floated several gold mining companies and was appointed secretary of the Pioneer Quartz Crushing Company. This interest took him to the Cape River Goldfield where he erected a milling machine in 1869, becoming the local agent for the Cape River Quartz Crushing Co. in 1870. Later he moved on to Ravenswood where he helped establish the Lady Marian 10 head stamp battery. He also spent some time on the Etheridge Goldfield during the period 1870 to 1874. He is reported as nearly drowning at Bowen in 1871 ! Clearly undaunted by this close call he stood for Parliament and was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Burke District on 4th December 1873 until 14th September, 1875. In 1874 James Venture Mulligan named the Hodgkinson River after him. In 1876 he was appointed leader of the Northwest Expedition sent out to explore the region of the Diamantina River. The party started at the Cloncurry River in May of that year and crossed the watershed to the Diamantina which they followed south. After reaching Lake Coongi in South Australia they turned west and a stream they discovered between the Diamantina and the Herbert they named after Mulligan. They then followed this river and then the Herbert northwards towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, finally returning to Brisbane by way of Normanton, Cloncurry and the Flinders River. This expedition effectively bridged the gap between the point where Sturt was foiled for want of water in 1845 and the extreme point of Landsborough's exploration of the Herbert in 1862.

He returned to the goldfields from 1877 onwards in the capacity of Warden at the Etheridge and the Palmer until 1881 when he was removed from office pending an inquiry into an official report he had written boosting a mine in which the temporary Minister, Sir Thomas McIlwraith, had a significant interest. By 1884 he had been apparently cleared by the enquiry and was appointed Relieving Police Magistrate for Queensland. From this position he was the appointed the Central Sugar Mills Commissioner to investigate proposed mill sites. The year of 1887 found him as Police Magistrate at Gympie. He then re-entered politics, again as Member for the Legislative Assembly for the Burke Electorate. His political career culminated in his appointment as Secretary for Mines and Works in the first Griffith Ministry between 12th December 1887 and 13th June 1888, a post he held again under Griffith from 12th August 1890 until 27th March 1893. In that year he was defeated in the state elections and headed off to the recently discovered goldfields of Western Australia where he represented numerous English Mining Syndicates. 1896 found him in Sydney and in 1899 he was the first editor of the Queensland Government Mining Journal. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society and received a Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. He died on the 23rd July, 1900 in Brisbane at the age of 65.

I'm indebted to the late Don Johnson of Charters Towers for much of the above information. It's pleasing to note that he has a street named after him in Queensland's premier gold mining town, Charters Towers.

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Richard Hodgkinson, 1763 - 1847

From humble beginnings as a school usher, Richard Hodgkinson rose to a position of political prominence in the first half of the 19th Century. His first position of importance was as the steward to Henrietta Maria Atherton who held significant landholdings in Atherton and Herefordshire. When the Lancaster Canal Company threatened to build a canal along the edge of her Atherton estate he embarked on a period of intense political lobbying to prevent the destruction of the rural view from the house to the parish church at Leigh. The intense lobbying paid off, the bill was ultimately thrown out by the House of Commons and his young mistress prevailed.

His duties as steward often took him to London where he saw many members of the Royal family at leisure in Hyde Park and at the Haymarket Theatre. He was apparently a deeply religious man, to the extent perhaps of seeming rather self righteous on occasion. His strong beliefs allowed him membership of the reactionary Bolton Pitt Club, a movement notorious for its opposition to parliamentary reform and catholic emancipation.

His 'High Tory' principles and fear of popular uprising allied him closely to the magistrates Hulton and Fletcher who were both implicated in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. His letters and journals through this period do though highlight a more sympathetic nature, witness his concern over the 'poor hand loom weaver who cannot get half employed, and when he has work the wages are so miserably low that with his utmost industry he cannot earn a living'.

His second son Joseph was appointed vicar of Leigh and caused a public furore in 1822 when he nominated a curate, Birkett, to the Astley Chapel. A number of anonymous pamphlets appeared criticising in the most vitriolic manner the choice of Richard and his son. Eventually a public protest was dispersed by dragoons and Birkett had to be provided with an armed guard of soldiers to protect him from the villagers. As a result, many of the villagers switched their allegiance to a number of dissenting chapels in the area. The incident probably contributed to Joseph's death in a lunatic asylum at the age of 30. The affair cast a pall over the family from which they never fully recovered.

Richard Hodgkinson's life and career have been well summarised in the book 'A Lancashire Gentleman' edited by Florence and Kenneth Wood and published by Alan Sutton Publishing. Much of the above information on Richard Hodgkinson is taken from a review by Alan Knowles.

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Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson, 1887 - 1951

Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson was born in Melbourne in 1887 to Albert James Hodgkinson and his wife Ada Josephine, (née Edmiston).

She was educated at Claremont Training College, Perth and taught in Perth and Sydney before transferring to the State Children's Relief Department after which she taught backward and delinquent children at Carlingford for two years.

In 1922 she became the first woman to receive a D. Educ from Harvard University in the United States.

Between 1923 and 1924 she was the Superintendent of Education for the mentally defective in New South Wales.

Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson never married and passed away in Sydney on the 24th March 1951.

The above notes are adapted from a brief entry in 'A Biographical Register, 1788 - 1939, Notes from the name index of the Australian Dictionary of Biography', compiled and edited by H.J. Gibbney and Ann G, Smith.

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Frank Hodgkinson, 1919 - 2001

Frank Hodgkinson was born in Sydney, Australia in 1919, a younger brother to Roy Hodgkinson.  He attended Fort Street Boys High School before attending drawing classes under artist Sydney Long.  After supporting himself for some time as a commercial artist and cartoonist he was drafted into the army in 1940.  During the war he served in North Africa, Syria and New Guinea.    He contracted malaria in the last named theatre and almost died.  Late in the war he was appointed an official war artist and a summary of his work in this role may be found on the appropriate Australian War Memorial artist profile web page.

After the war he returned to Europe to resume his studies, firstly in London and later in Paris finally returning to Australia in the mid 1950s.  The recipient of the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Scholarship in 1958, he was able to return once again to Europe and resided in Spain for many years.  The Spanish landscape was a source of much inspiration and many of his finest works were produced during this period.  Some of his work drew the ire of Spain's dictator, Franco, and he was, for some time, censored by that régime.

He subsequently returned to Australia and produced numerous works reflecting the beauty of his homeland's landscapes.  One of his later works was The Spirit of Sydney, a massive 32 metre long mural for the Westin Hotel, completed as part of the renovation of the city's historic GPO.

Frank passed away in 2001.  The above summary is taken largely from an article on Frank Hodgkinson by Benjamin Genocchio which appeared in the Weekend Australian of June 15-16, 2002.

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Roy Hodgkinson, 1911 - 1993

A potted history of Roy Hodgkinson, Official War Artist can be found at the appropriate Australian War Memorial artist profile web page.  Roy was the elder brother of Frank Hodgkinson and was Chief Artist of the Melbourne Herald.  He retired in 1976.

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Samuel Hodgkinson, 1817 - 1914

An excellent summary of Samuel Hodgkinson, pioneer New Zealand doctor, settler and politician by June Starke can be found on the pages of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

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William Wadsworth Hodkinson, 1881 - 1971

William Wadsworth Hodkinson was born in Pueblo in the state of Colorado in the United States of America (thanks to J.W.F. Mills and his acquaintance, Dan Carter for that piece of information).

He first worked as a telegrapher for the railroad and later sold correspondence-school courses before opening his own cinema (film or movie theatre) in Ogden, Utah in 1907.  In so doing he was amongst the first to show films in a theatre rather than a nickelodeon, thereby appealing to a wider section of the community.  This venture was a success and by opening and operating a film exchange system he helped other exhibitors to emulate his lead and open their own cinemas. 

Hodkinson went on to found Paramount and is reputedly responsible for designing Paramount's distinctive logo in 1914.  Utah residents believe the logo represents the 9,712-foot Mount Ben Lomond, in the Wasatch Range of the Rockies, near Ogden.

Hodkinson stayed in the film distribution industry until 1929 when he left the business and started manufacturing aircraft.  In 1936 he founded Central American Airlines.

There are numerous references to W.W. Hodkinson on the web.  Among them, J. A. Aberdeen's excellent summary (with several links) on the SIMPP (Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers) archive web pages is one of the better sites.

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Colin 'Hoppy' Hodgkinson, 1920 - 1996

Colin Gerald Shaw Hodgkinson was born at Wells, Somerset, on February 11, 1920. His father had been awarded the MC and Bar as a Royal Flying Corps pilot in the First World War, and was to serve as an intelligence wing-commander in the Second World War.  Hodgkinson's earliest memories of his father were of a powerful man in hunting pink. As he learned later, he was an outstanding Master of Foxhounds with the Mendip, a big-game hunter and a fine shot. Soon in the saddle himself, the squire's son followed his father's country pursuits until, being judged difficult and unruly, he was condemned to the harsh discipline of a cadetship at the Nautical College, Pangbourne.

In the summer of 1938 Hodgkinson spent an idyllic holiday riding with the French Cavalry School at Saumur, in the Loire, before being accepted for pilot training as a midshipman in the Fleet Air Arm.  After training aboard the aircraft carrier Courageous, he had gone solo and completed 20 hours in a Tiger Moth biplane trainer when he collided with another aircraft.  At the time, accompanied by his instructor, Hodgkinson was practicing blind flying on instruments with a hood over his head. The Tiger crashed from 800ft at Gravesend, killing the instructor and so grievously injuring Hodgkinson that his legs were amputated. During a long period in hospital he encountered Sir Archibald McIndoe who invited him to his celebrated wartime RAF plastic surgery unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, for some work on his face.

Inspired by the example of the legless fighter ace Douglas Bader, became an accomplished fighter pilot in the RAF.  Although he called himself "the poor man's Bader" Hodgkinson had no cause to cast himself as an understudy. Such was his courage that he succeeded despite bouts of claustrophobia and an admitted fear of flying and combat.  He also had a horror of being forced to ditch in the Channel and stuffed his hollow legs with ping-pong balls, hoping that they would help to keep him afloat. Once, at 30,000 ft, he took violent evasive action before realising that what he had taken to be a clatter of gunfire was the noise of ping-pong balls exploding at that altitude.  But his self-doubt was masked by the bluff, boisterous bonhomie that characterised not only his wartime career as a fighter pilot but also his post-war success in the competitive world of advertising and public relations.

Hodgkinson was already beginning to be talked about as a 'second Bader' when he joined No 611 squadron in June 1943. He flew Spitfires from Coltishall, Norfolk, under Wing-Commander "Laddie" Lucas, the hero of the Battle of Malta.  One August morning Hodgkinson was part of an escort to 36 American B-26 bombers in an attack on Bernay airfield near Evreux, northwest of Paris. The wing was turning for home when more than 50 FW 190s appeared up-sun. The Luftwaffe fighter pilots fell upon the Spitfires.

Lucas turned 611's Spitfires into the attack. There was a furious melee in which the squadron fought all the way back to the coast.

Hodgkinson, remembering his father teaching him to shoot on the family's Somerset estate, shouted: "Swing with it" and. making a well judged beam-into-quarter attack, picked off a 190 and sent it spinning earthwards just as it was fastening onto Lucas's tail.

Lucas recalled: "It was an uncommonly quick and accurate piece of shooting. Hodgkinson contributed handsomely to a total of five 190s destroyed against two Spit's.

"In 12 rough and eventful minutes Hodgkinson had demonstrated that, despite his massive disability, he could match his skills against the best that General Adolf Galland and his JagdGeschwader 26 had to offer. " It was Hodgkinson's second 'kill'. Earlier he had shot down a FW 190 just off the end of Brighton pier.

Although he was a naval type, Hodgkinson was welcomed into Mclndoe's Guinea Pig Club brotherhood of burned airmen. Such was their spirit that he determined to emulate Bader and to fly again. He set his heart on flying Spitfires and by the autumn of 1942 had wheedled his way out of the Navy and into the RAF as a pilot officer.

He was briefly with No.131, a Spitfire squadron before moving on in the new year, successively to 610 and 510 squadrons. He learned his trade by flying sweeps over occupied France. The following March he was promoted Flying officer and in June joined 611, then in the famous Biggin Hill wing. After his August bomber escort exploit over France, Hodgkinson returned to 501 as a flight commander.

In November, during a high altitude weather reconnaissance his oxygen supply failed, and he crashed into a French field. Badly mangled and minus one of his tin legs he was rescued from the blazing Spitfire by two farm workers. He was reunited with them in 1983, when they presented him with a part of his aircraft's propeller. He had not seen them since being stretchered away en route for a prisoner of war camp via a railway station where his guards abandoned him for some hours in a lavatory while they sheltered from air-raids.

After 10 months Flt-Lt Hodgkinson was repatriated, being deemed of no further use to his country. Yet such was his irrepressible spirit, that after being mended again by McIndoe, he resumed flying, ending the war with a ferry unit at Filton, Bristol. This gave him, as he was to admit, the opportunity of indulging in some pocket-money smuggling, trading such "contraband" as nylons, utility cloth, tea and coffee for cases of brandy among other "imports". Once, he said, he carried gold in his tin legs.

Although he was released from the service in 1946 Hodgkinson returned in 1949 as a weekend flyer. He became a jet pilot and flew Vampires with 501 and 604 squadrons of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force until the early 1950s.

Civilian life presented fresh challenges, and he plunged enthusiastically into the post-war regeneration of advertising and public relations. From the agency Erwin Wasey he moved into PR, learned the ropes and broke away to establish Colin Hodgkinson Associates. With the drive and 'press on' spirit he carried over from fighter days, Hodgkinson prospered, and attracted a mix of prestigious and solid industrial accounts. He also tried politics, standing as a Conservative in the safe Labour seat of South West Islington in the 1955 general election. He made an impressive debut and rediscovered his youthful boxing skills in a punch-up with Labour supporters.

Articulate and a fluent writer, Hodgkinson was briefly air correspondent with the fledgling ITN. In 1957 he published Best Foot Forward, an entertaining account of his life until then.

In 1986 he moved permanently to his holiday home in the Dordogne. He married first June Hunter, a former fashion model. After her death he married Georgina, a Frenchwoman, who survives him.  He died at the age of 76.

Modified and originally taken from the London Daily Telegraph Obituary.

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(c) Ian Hodkinson  Last updated February 2004