Harold Hodges

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Harold Hodges
Birth nameHarold Augustus Hodges
Date of birth22 January 1886
Place of birthMansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, England
Date of death22 March 1918(1918-03-22) (aged 32)
Place of deathHam, France
Rugby union career
Position(s) Prop
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
1906 England 2 (0)

Harold Augustus Hodges (22 January 1886 – 22 March 1918) was an English sportsman and soldier who played international rugby union for England. He also played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire.

Hodges, a prop, was capped twice for England in the 1906 Home Nations Championship. He took part in their losses to Wales and Ireland.[1] At club level, he played for Nottingham and while studying at Trinity College in 1908 was captain of the Oxford University RFC.

In 1911, he made his first-class cricket debut, against Derbyshire at the Miners Welfare Ground in Blackwell. He made his highest first-class score of 62 in his only innings, which the highest by a Nottinghamshire player in a low scoring match and bettered by only Derbyshire's Arthur Morton, who was the one that dismissed Hodges.[2] The following year, he made two further appearances and finished his first-class career with 141 runs, at an average of 47.[3]

During World War I, Hodges served with the 3rd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment. On the night of 22 March 1918, he entered a small factory on a road between Ham and Eppeville, hoping to make contact with a British battalion. He instead encountered enemy troops and was shot dead.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Harold Hodges". ESPN Scrum.
  2. ^ "Harold Hodges". CricketArchive.
  3. ^ "Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire in 1911". CricketArchive.
  4. ^ "Harold Hodges". The Rugby History Society.