Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Lewis Hodgson was born on 7 October 1918 in Edithburgh, a coastal town on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Lewis or “Lew” as he became known was the fourth of eight children born to Helena and Alexander Hodgson. By 1925 the family had moved to Barmera on the shores of Lake Bonney in the Riverland district of South Australia where Alexander (aka Darby or Pop) worked as a carpenter and established a dairy farm.

After leaving school, Lewis worked as a labourer in the Barmera district and in 1937 married Hilda Beryl Hope. They had two sons, Garry and Ian.

Lewis enlisted in the Army on 11 November 1939 and was posted to the 2/10 Battalion based at Wayville. After basic training at Wayville and Woodside, the battalion embarked for the Middle East in May 1940 as part of the 18th Brigade of the 6th Division 2nd AIF. However it was diverted to the United Kingdom to reinforce defences following the evacuation at Dunkirk and the fear of a German invasion. The battalion was based in Glasgow and finally embarked for Egypt in November 1940.

In March 1941 Lewis was detached for special duty with Lustre Force a joint British, Australian and New Zealand force assembled to participate in the defence of Greece against Nazi invasion. However he returned to his battalion in May 1941 and did not embark for Greece.

Lewis served with the 2/10th in the defence of Tobruk and was wounded in action in July 1941. He later served in Palestine and Syria and was promoted to Corporal in August 1941.

Following the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbour and their rapid advances through South East Asia the battalion was recalled for duty in the Pacific. After a brief leave sojourn in Australia, the battalion joined other Australian and American units in actions against the Japanese forces in Papua.

In July 1942 he was promoted to Sergeant and was involved in intense fighting during the Battle of Milne Bay. After defeating the Japanese at Milne Bay the battle front moved to Buna and Gona where the battalion joined American forces charged with dislodging well entrenched Japanese forces

In October 1942 Lewis was promoted to Lieutenant and took command of a platoon in “A” Company. The battalion was involved in heaving fighting in Buna and suffered heavy losses through November and December.

On the day before Christmas Lewis singlehandedly destroyed some sniper posts that were sandbagged in trees by the airstrip. After that he led a patrol out at night and attacked and killed an enemy bunker with grenades.

On 26 December 1942 Lewis was killed in action leading his men against enemy machine gun positions which were holding up the battalion’s advance along the Buna airstrip. His company commander later reported in the Murray Pioneer newspaper 12 August 1943, p1 “Hodgson led the platoon in a flank attack on some machine guns. They had to crawl for 200 yards in broad daylight, through grass towards the built-up dispersal bay where the guns were located. When they got near the guns he yelled - ‘Let’s get at them boys’ With that he jumped up to lead his men in, but as he got to his feet he was killed”

Lieutenant Charles Lewis Hodgson was Mentioned in Despatches in December 1943 for “Gallant and disinguished services in the South West Pacific Area”