Lieutenant Ivan Tattersall HODGKINSON
2/4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry

Date of birth: 11th June 1891
Date of death: 9th June 1931

Died aged 39
Unknown
Ivan Tattersall Hodgkinson was born at Glencot, Wells in Somerset on the 11th of June 1891 the son of William Sampson Hodgkinson JP, a landowner, and Julia (nee Cazelet) Hodgkinson of “Glencot" House, Wells. He was christened at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells on the 9th of August 1891.

He was educated at Pembroke Lodge School, Southbourne, Hampshire and at Hazelwood School until July 1904 where he was a member of the Choir, was a member of the Cricket XI in 1903 and 1904 and of the Football XI in 1903. The school magazine wrote the following on his 1903 cricket season: - "Has come with a most disastrously formed "style" which has resulted in his average being what it is, and which he has found it as yet impossible to get out of. But we have great hopes of him both as a bat and bowler. He bowls fast-medium, with a good delivery, but not much command at of length at present."

Of his 1904 cricket season they wrote: - "Had to bear the brunt of the bowling, and deserved more success than he obtained; but is hardly straight enough to be really dangerous. His batting has been very disappointing. He shaped nicely, but the bat and ball to not meet! An uncertain field, but good catch."

They wrote the following on his 1903 football season: - "(Goalkeeper) - Quite one of the best custodians we have had; is however, at times guilty of fatal indecision; he must also remember in clearing to avoid the centre of the field."

On leaving the school the magazine wrote the following of him: - " .....goes to Eton. he has been the best bowler in the Cricket XI, an excellent goal keeper, and a useful member of the choir."

He went on to Eton College where he was in A.C.G. Heygate’s House from September 1904 to July 1908. Later in 1908 he went on to Magdalen College Oxford leaving in 1910. On leaving school he became a journalist and author.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry on the 28th of November 1914 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 8th of March 1916. He served in India and relinquished his commission on the grounds of ill health on the 24th of May 1916; he was granted a Silver War Badge. He remained in India where he joined the War Trade Intelligence Department in 1917 before returning home where he was appointed as Secretary to His Majesty's Minister at Berne from 1918 to 1919. Shortly after the war he was living at 115 Park Road, Regents Park in London and was a member of the Hanover Club and of the Reform Club.

He was married at the American Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris to Kathryn Van Vleck (nee Townsend) of New York on the 21st of February 1912. They lived at Paris, New York and Munich before settling at the family home at "Glencot" House at Wells. They had a son, Terence William Ivan, born on the 7th of October 1913 who was brought up by his paternal grandmother. On the 14th of September 1923 she filed for divorce on the ground of his adultery with an unknown woman at the Jules Hotel, Jermyn Street on the 31st of August and the 1st and 2nd of September 1923. She left him and moved to 9 Dorset Square in London. He entered a plea of not guilty on the 7th of November 1923 but this was dismissed and she was awarded a decree nisi on the 23rd of October 1924.

He then decided to devote himself to writing and literature and lived in France. He was the author of "The Society of Nobles, A Cosmopolitan Adventure", published by Chapman & Hall in 1928 and of "The Avenging Brotherhood: A Starling Tale of Russian Intrigue", which was published by The White House Publishers in 1929.

He died at the American Hospital in Paris.
Went on to Eton College

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