He later served under Captain Francis Crozier as Second Lieutenant aboard HMS Terror on the 1845 Franklin Expedition, which sought to chart unexplored areas of the Canadian Arctic, find the Northwest Passage, and carry out scientific observations.
George Henry Hodgson was born 25 January 1817 in London, England, to Rector and future Dean of Carlisle Robert Hogdson and his wife Mary Tucker.
[3] On 21 July 1842, Hodgson participated in the Battle of Chinkiang, storming the stronghold city of Zhenjiang near the meeting of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River.
[7] Hodgson, along with Royal Navy officers Granville Loch and future HMS Erebus commander James Fitzjames (who was wounded) distinguished themselves by rushing the Grand Canal to assess its fordability while under fire.
[8] Two other Terror men, Subordinate Officer's Steward William Gibson and Captain of the Foretop Harry Peglar, also served aboard Wanderer during their naval careers.
[10] On 10 July 1845, in the Whalefish Islands, Fitzjames reported that he, Fairholme, and Hodgson counted two-hundred-eighty icebergs in the water from atop a nearby hill.
[14] Both spoons were found by Lieutenant W. R. Hobson of the Francis Leopold McClintock Arctic Expedition in an abandoned boat in Erebus Bay in May 1859, and are engraved with Hodgson's personal crest: a dove holding an olive branch perched on rocks.