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Mr. Thomas Hodgkinson, the well-known grocer, of Market-head, Derby, received on Saturday a telegram from the War Office stating that his son, Trooper T. W. Hodgkinson (No. 5099), who is returning home with the Derbyshire Company of the Imperial Yeomanry on board the transport Mongolian, is dangerously ill suffering from enteric fever. The information was conveyed to the War Office from Las Palmas, where the Mongolian arrived last Friday. Mr. Hodgkinson has also received a telegram from Captain Gisborne, who is in charge of the Derbyshire Company of the Imperial Yeomanry, to similar effect. It is greatly to be hoped that trooper Hodgkinson will be on the high way to recovery by the time the boat reaches England. He went out with the first batch of Yeomanry some 16 months ago, and enjoyed the best of health till last January, when he had to go into hospital for a short time. He, however, was soon able to return to duty.

Derby Daily Telegraph, Monday 3rd June 1901


A great gloom is cast over the proceedings [of the return of the Derbyshire Yeomanry] by the death of Corporal Hodgkinson, whose father, Mr. T. R. Hodgkinson, of the Market-place, Derby, first learned the sad news while waiting at Southampton to greet him. It is true the family had received information of his illness before the boat left Las Palmas, but whilst prepared for the worst, his friends naturally hoped for the best. The following account of the pathetic incident is written for us by one of the Yeomanry who was a close friend of the deceased soldier: -
'Just after tea on June 1, when everyone except the mess orderlies were on deck enjoying the cool breeze of the evening, the orderly sergeant came round warning us that poor Hodgkinson was dead, and that we were to be ready to attend his funeral aft at 8.30. Six volunteered to carry him the little distance he would have to go on this side of the sea's surface, and these were naturally those who had been the most closely connected with him in the ranks. Men were warned for the firing party, and the remainder of the squadron were ordered to attend. The poor chap's body was sewn up in a hammock and laid on a grating, and was afterwards raised with all due reverence, and the mournful procession to the vessel's side commenced. A portion of the bulwark on the starboard side in the aft well had been lowered down, and, as the procession approached, the firing party presented arms and the body was lowered. The service for the burial of the dead at sea was at once commenced by Colonel Bromley Davenport, who recited the service in a most impressive manner, and the weirdness of the scene, lit up as it was by two small oil lamps, one being held by a sailor so that the colonel could read the service, was one never to be forgotten. The engines had been stopped, and as the words "We therefore commit his body to the deep" were uttered, the body was reverently dropped overboard, and the ship at once resumed her journey. The closing portion of the service was then read, and at its close the trumpets sang out on the still night "The last post." Everyone then filed quietly away to their quarters and to think that another of their comrades who had survived the hardships and dangers of the campaign should, at the moment when his native land was almost in view, be fated never to see his friends again.'

Derby Daily Telegraph, Monday 10th June 1901

Cathedral Church of All Saints Derby, Derbyshire

Hodgkinson had served in South Africa from the 27th of January 1901 after joining the 8th Company, 14th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry at Derby on the 9th of November the year before, he gave his next of kin as his father Mr J R Hodgkinson of Market Head Derby.

Hello BereniceUK

You may be interested in this little story. I was researching the death of my great uncle (Samuel Leslie Hodgkinson) in 1943 in the Battle of Volturno, Italy and randomly came across your post. My mother told me that her grandparents went down to meet him off the boat in Southampton only to be devastated to learn of his death when he did not disembark.

It seems that she has been mistaken and in fact it was her great uncle that failed to arrive in Southampton from the Boer War, as you have highlighted here. My grandfather was a grocer in the market-place, Derby which is mentioned in the article. None of us are aware of the plaque posted below and we will certainly visit it when next in Derby which sadly is not as often as in the past.

Many thanks for your post

Best wishes
Edward - TW Hodgkinson's Great Great Nephew

Thanks for sharing that, Edward. All Saints' Church is now Derby Cathedral, so, in normal times, there shouldn't be any difficulty in visiting midweek or on a Saturday.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Cathedral#All_Saints%27_Church