Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

At the outbreak of the First World War, the Lodge’s were living in Hamilton, Western Victoria.  The family consisted of the parents, James and Ellen Lodge, five sons; Frank, James (Jim), Augustine (Gus), Richard, and Frederick and two daughters; Alice and Ellen.  James Lodge was a noted stonemason in the district, responsible for the construction of many of the fine private and public buildings, which still exist this day.  At the time, Frank, Richard and Jim were working with their father in this business.

Richard, like his older brother Gus, had been interested in the Military and had served four years as a senior Cadet in the 20th (Corangamite) Light Horse.  On 23 October 1916, he enlisted as a Sapper in the Engineers and proceeded to Seymour for training with Engineer Reinforcements.  In November, his parents wrote to his commanding officer refusing consent to him volunteering for overseas service.  He spent the next eight months at the Domain Camp (Melbourne) before finally embarking on HMAT Themistocles for Europe on 4 August 1917.  Once in England, brother Frank (MM, MC) wasted no time in claiming Richard under the Kings Regulations and arranging for his transfer to the 2nd Pioneers.

Richard had only been in France for three weeks and there is reason to believe that Richard had not in fact been issued with a gas mask at the time of the attack around the of 12th March 1918, a dereliction of care for these new recruits.  By 30 March he was back in England, this time in the Ontario Military hospital.  The mustard gas attack caused serious damage to Richard’s lungs from which he was not able to recover from for the remainder of the war (and in fact, for the remainder of his life).  Richard left for Australia in January 1919, and was also discharged as medically unfit. 

While the four Lodge brothers were at war in in mid 1918 their younger brother Frederick died from the flu in June 1918, aged 17.  The tragedy was doubled by the death of their father, James Lodge from the same illness on July 31st 1918, although his youngest daughter, Nell believes that he died as a result of “fretting” for his sons.  Ironically, James Snr and Frederick were the only two Lodge men to die during WWI and they did not go to the war.

Richard married in 1924, Nell being one of his Bridesmaids and had one child.  Richard and brother Frank pooled their deferred army pay they had each received on discharge and started a building and contracting business in Melbourne under the name Lodge Brothers – a company that still exists today.  Among a long list of monuments to those who fought and were lost in WWI, perhaps the most significant project Lodge Bros completed was the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance (with Daniel Vaughan).  Richard role in Lodge Bros this role must have been somewhat limited.  Richard was also classified as Totally and Permanently incapacitated as a result of his having been gassed and he died in 1962, aged 64, from pneumonia and leukaemia.

In the assembling of this biography, I am heavily indebted to Frank Lodge (grandson of Frank Spry Lodge MM, MC) who undertook most of the research for his unpublished book chapter “Lodges at war”.