Hodgson began his career as a sailor, but owing to an accident to his leg, he was forced to give up the sea.
[8] Hodgson married Mary Wilson Crowe (14 Feb 1871 – 16 February 1945) in St Peter's Parish, Dundee, on 4 June 1894, and the marriage was registered the following day.
[5][note 4] Mary was staying at Shepherds' Hotel in Deal, Kent on 29 September 1939,[17] at the time of the 1939 Register.
[20] Hodgson was elected vice president of the newly formed "Graphic Arts Association" in January 1890,[21] and was re-elected at the end of the year.
He produced prints of two etchings in 1891 which were said to be "extremely pleasing both in conception and execution" and showed his "attainment of very creditable mastery of the technique of the etcher's art.
"[27] In that year also he produced a portfolio of six etchings of scenes in Dundee,[note 6] which were said to be "graceful transcripts of local scenery".
[30] In 1894 Hodson had "a beautiful etching" of Fettes College, Edinburgh published by print makers Dickinson and Foster of Bond Street in London.
[15] In 1894 Hodgson moved to Bushey, Hertfordshire to study under Hubert von Herkomer at the art school he had established there in 1883.
In this story, three Royal Navy sub-lieutenants are travelling home from the Far East by a mail steamer when they are captured by a disguised German commerce raider.
In this story, two young Royal Naval Reserve officers have various adventures on their armed merchant cruiser in the Mediterranean.