Banknote ‘tribute’ to fallen soldier is research mystery
THE name and details of a Macclesfield solider killed in the First World War have been found mysteriously written on a banknote hundreds of miles away.
Claire Carney spotted John Hodgson’s name, regiment details and age on a £10 she withdrew from a cash machine in Norwich.
And after a quick search in Google, she was taken to the website Macclesfieldreflects. org. uk, which had details of Private Hodgson’s role in the Great War.
She then sent a picture of the note to Rosie Rowley, the website’s administrator and researcher, who shared the odd story with the Express.
Rosie said: “Who wrote the information on the banknote, and why, is a mystery.”
But Claire, a 44-yearold florist, has a theory that the cryptic message is in fact a tribute to his memory.
She said: “I like the idea that someone wrote his details on the note because they didn’t want his name and the ultimate sacrifice he made to be forgotten.”
According to research by Macclesfieldreflects. org.uk, John Hodgson was born on December 19, 1894, in Macclesfield, the son of Margaret and Albert, a house decorator of Albion Street.
He later lived at Byrons Lane and Lord Street and had seven siblings – Ethel, Esther, Hannah, George, Mary, Harry and Elsie.
John was educated at Lord Street School and later worked as an embroiderer.
He enrolled at Maccles- field Technical School in September 1909 to further his education and later worked as a machinist at the Sunderland Street Slipper Works.
John joined the 7th Bat- talion of the Cheshire Regiment and after training as part of 159th Brigade, 53rd (Welsh) Division, received orders to equip for service in an undisclosed location in the Mediterranean.
In July 1915 they sailed from Devonport to Alexandria in Egypt, then on to the island of Lemnos on August 4.
The Battalion landed off the coast of Gallipoli on August 8 but came under shell fire.
They were ordered to attack in the direction of a dip in the hills behind Anafarta Saghir and by the end of the day, Private Hodgson was missing and he was assumed to have died on August 9, 1915. He was 21.
John has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial in Turkey and the Macclesfield War Memorial.