Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HARRY HODDS 14/208. Born 1898, in Goole, West Yorkshire, the fourth of five children, to Arthur and Alice Hodds, of 8, Kelvin Street, Hull (War Pension address). Harry was a Clerk before the war. He enlisted at Hull City Hall in the early months of 1915. He was sent to train with the 13th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and served in “C” Company. He was underage. I can’t find his enlistment form to prove he lied, but he would have been 17 when he signed his name on the dotted line. In early 1918, the 12th and 13th Battalions were disbanded due to a lack of available fighting men and Harry became a part of the 10th. He served in 6th Platoon, “B” Company, with the 10th East Yorkshire Regiment. By this point he was a veteran of Egypt, the Somme, Oppy Wood and countless close encounters with machine guns and shelling. It is impossible to imagine the weight of those experiences and how they would have affected him had he made it home, but he never got the chance to return. Harry Hodds was killed in action on 12th April 1918 in the trenches around Bethune fighting a rearguard action against the advancing German Army. He was buried hastily on the battlefield and his grave exhumed after the Armistice and reburied at Croix-du-Bac British Cemetery, Steenwerck. He was 20 years old. His death was reported in the Hull Daily Mail with his photograph. *
