Flora, who had custody of their two children, John and his sister Lucie, remarried to Lionel George William Guest, a cousin of British prime minister Winston Churchill, and moved to later live in Montreal, Quebec in Canada.

It was through Churchill, who then was First Lord of the Admiralty, that Dodge became commissioned into the Royal Naval Division, arriving in England in August 1914.

[4] Together with Bernard Freyberg and two other officers, Dodge decided where Rupert Brooke was to be buried, and dug the grave on Skyros, immediately before the Gallipoli assault.

[9] He was promoted to major on 22 February 1918,[10] was wounded on more than one occasion, and ended the war as an acting lieutenant-colonel[11] commanding the 16th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment fighting in France.

[14] Dodge's American cousin, Braxton Bigelow, had also joined the British army to fight in the First World War.

[18] As part of his campaign for the London County Council election in 1926, Dodge engaged in a boxing exhibition match against a local professional and sustained a black eye.

She was born in North Carolina; her great grandparents included Governor Tod Robinson Caldwell and General William Thomas Ward.

At the outbreak of the war, Dodge re-enlisted into the British Army, taking up the rank of major, serving with the Middlesex Regiment attached to the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division.

While awaiting action during the "Phony War" stage, Johnnie secured adoption as prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for Gillingham for the next general election which was postponed by hostilities.

During the march his bare feet became badly cut, and eventually he was put on a barge with other Army prisoners for transport to Germany.

Rumpel arranged for the records to show that he had been transferred to the Royal Air Force,[22] and from then on, he remained with the RAF POWs.

A tunnel had been constructed by the permanent British staff, and in June 1941, Dodge, together with Day, Bushell and 14 others made their bid for freedom.

[30] Dodge was the first to be removed from Hirschberg, and was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was later joined by Jimmy James, Harry Day and Flight Lieutenant Sydney Dowse.

[32][33] Dodge, who travelled alone, was on the run for over a month, and after receiving help from some French slave labourers, was arrested by a German farmer and returned to Sachsenhausen.

Dodge was asked to undertake this task because of his distant relationship to British prime minister Winston Churchill.

[37] Post-war Dodge was a central figure leading the war crimes investigation to bring key Gestapo and other officials to justice who were responsible for carrying out the orders to murder 50 of the 76 escapees from Stalag Luft III.

He attempted to restart his political career, but with no success, when he stood at Gillingham at the 1945 General Election but lost narrowly to the winning Labour member, Joseph Binns.