John Hodgson (1814-1857)

John Hodgson (1814-1857) of the East Indian Railway

1857 Death of his wife. 'At Allahabad Fort, of cholera, Mary, the wife of JOHN HODGSON, Esq., Chief Locomotive Superintendent, East Indian Railway, North Western Provinces.'

1857 Died. 'At Allahabad, of cholera, JOHN HODGSON, Esq., Chief Locomotive Superintendent, East Indian Railway, North Western Provinces.'

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1859 Obituary

MR. JOHN HODGSON, second son of the Rev. John Hodgson, Vicar of Hartburn, Northumberland, and Historian of that county, was born at Heworth, in the county of Durham, July 5th, 1814.

From an early age he was devoted to mechanical pursuits, but it, was not till he had attained the age of twenty years, that he commenced his professional career.

He then became the pupil of Messrs. R. and W. Hawthorn, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and continued in their works for ten years, when he entered into partnership with the Messrs. Hawthorn’s, and other parties, in Germany, and established an engineering manufactory, at Ullersdorf, in Silesia.

Here he remained altogether about four years, but the undertaking not being successful he returned to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and established himself as a consulting Engineer, an occupation which he followed until the autumn of 1852.

At that time he was appointed Superintendent of the Locomotive Department, for the East Indian Railway Company, at Calcutta.

In November of that year he sailed from Southampton, and remained at Calcutta till the beginning of 1856, when he removed to Allahabad, and established the workshops of the Company there.

Mr. Hodgson joined the Institution, as an Associate, in 1853 ; being anxious, although absent from his native country, to retain his professional connexion with it. He was distinguished for his mild and amiable qualities. His high sense of honour and integrity, were exemplified in every situation he was placed in, and his untiring zeal in every undertaking in which he was engaged, all indicated that he would have risen high in his profession, had his life been spared.

On the breaking out of the mutiny, and when Allahabad was declared in a state of siege, he and his amiable wife, with many other Europeans, went into the fort of that city. Owing to its crowded state, and the short supply of provisions, Mrs. Hodgson was attacked with cholera, by which she was rapidly carried off, and died on the 19th June, 1857.

This melancholy event proved such a blow to poor Hodgson, that all attempts to rally him were unavailing, and he was attacked with the same disease, to which he fell an easy prey, and died on the 20th of June, the day after that on which his wife expired, at the early age of forty-three years.

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