Charles Harold HODSDON

HODSDON, Charles Harold

Service Number: 750
Enlisted: 23 September 1914, Brisbane, Queensland
Last Rank: Corporal
Last Unit: 15th Infantry Battalion
Born: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 1893
Home Town: Windsor, Brisbane, Queensland
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Tailor
Died: Phthisis, Istanbul, Turkey, 20 January 1916
Cemetery: Haidar Pasha Cemetery, Istanbul, Turkey
II G 4
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Windsor State School Honour Board
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World War 1 Service

23 Sep 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 750, Brisbane, Queensland
22 Dec 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 750, 15th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: ''
22 Dec 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 750, 15th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Melbourne
25 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Corporal, 750, 15th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli
9 Aug 1915: Imprisoned The August Offensive - Lone Pine, Suvla Bay, Sari Bair, The Nek and Hill 60 - Gallipoli
20 Jan 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Corporal, 750, 15th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 750 awm_unit: 15th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Corporal awm_died_date: 1916-01-20

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Biography contributed

Hodsdon saw action in Gallipoli on the 18th of May 1915, during which his right leg was injured. He was transported aboard the hospital ship Galeka to Heliopolis and later Helouan. By July he had recovered and was sent to rejoin his battalion at Gallipoli. Less than a fortnight later, Hodsdon was once again injured in his right leg, this time with a broken hip. It was in this state that he was captured by Turkish forces and transferred to Tasch Kischla Hospital, Constantinople. He died during the night of the 19th/20th January 1916 and was promptly buried at the Feri-keuy (Feriköy) Protestant Cemetery. He was one of the first Commonwealth POWs to die in Constantinople, aged 22.

Several documents list cause of death as intestinal tuberculosis but another POW, Sergeant Bailey, claimed Hodsdon died of “[his] wound, bad treatment and neglect.” Hodsdon’s body was exhumed after the war and reburied in Haidar Pasha (Haydarpaşa) with a standard commonwealth headstone.

Courtesy of Anzac Square & Memorial Galleries

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