During the war he served with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was captured by the Italians at El Alamein in July 1942 and interned in a POW camp in Italy.
[3] After the war he became a free-lance cartoonist, illustrator and commercial artist working from an office above the vegetable markets in Blair St, Wellington.
[5] Although Lodge formally retired as resident cartoonist from the Evening Post in 1985, he continued to produce cartoons, drawing his last one for the paper in November 1988.
[1] After his death Prime Minister David Lange and former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon both paid tribute to his work: Lange said "his drawing touched the universal funny-bone"; Muldoon described his work as "shot through with a delightful sense of humour that was never malicious".
[7] In the 1981 New Year Honours, Lodge was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services as a cartoonist.