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Wed, 19 Feb 2025 08:49:40 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP, post #13659525
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William Hope Hodgson is a reminder you are not a man
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hope_Hodgson
Hodgson ran away from his boarding school at age 13, in an effort to become a sailor. He was caught and returned to his family, but eventually received his
father's permission to be apprenticed as a cabin boy and began a four-year apprenticeship in 1891.[3]
At sea, Hodgson experienced bullying. This led him to begin a programme of personal training.[6] According to Sam Moskowitz,[7]
The primary motivation of his body development was not health, but self-defence. His relatively short height and sensitive, almost beautiful face made him an
irresistible target for bullying seamen. When they moved in to pulverize him, they would learn too late that they had come to grips with easily one of the most
powerful men, pound for pound, in all England.
While away at sea, in addition to his exercises with weights and with a punching bag, Hodgson also practised his photography, taking photographs of aurora
borealis, cyclones, lightning, sharks, and the maggots that infested the food given to sailors. He also built up a stamp collection, practised his marksmanship
while hunting, and kept journals of his experiences at sea.[3] In November 1898, he was awarded the Royal Humane Society medal for heroism for saving another
sailor who, in March of the same year, had fallen from the topmast into the sea in shark-infested waters off the coast of New Zealand.[3]
In 1899, at age 22, he opened a School of Physical Culture in Ainsworth Street, Blackburn, England, as "the inventor and teacher of a system that will cure
indigestion". The School offered tailored exercise regimes for personal training.[8] Among his customers were members of the Blackburn police force.
Hodgson joined[when?] the University of London's Officers' Training Corps. Refusing to have anything to do with the sea despite his experience and Third Mate's
certificate, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 3 July 1915.[10] In 1916, he was thrown from a horse and suffered a
broken jaw and a serious head injury; he received a mandatory discharge on 10 June 1916,[11] and returned to writing.
Refusing to remain on the sidelines of WWI, Hodgson recovered sufficiently to re-enlist, receiving a new commission as second lieutenant on 18 March 1917.[12]
On 10 October 1917 he was promoted to lieutenant, though this was not gazetted until after his death.[13] His published articles and stories from the time
reflect his experience in war.
Death
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Hodgson was killed by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918; sources suggest either the 17th or 19th.[5] He was
eulogized in The Times on 2 May 1918. The American magazine Adventure, to which Hodgson had contributed fiction, also ran an obituary which reprinted a clipping
from his widow, describing how Hodgson led a group of NCOs to safety under heavy fire.[14]
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