William Noel Hodgson

William Noel Hodgson was born in Gloucestershire in 1893 and educated at Durham School and Christ Church, Oxford. At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the British Army and served with the Devonshire Regiment, earning the Military Cross during fighting on the Western Front.

Hodgson also wrote poetry and prose under the name Edward Melbourne, addressing service, sacrifice and the expectation of death. His poem Before Action was written shortly before the Somme offensive. On 1 July 1916 he was killed while serving with the 9th Devons near Mametz, on the first day of the battle.

In Iain Gale’s Zero Hour, Hodgson is shown writing as the British army waits for the Somme attack to begin. His historical poetry provides a counterpoint to operational planning and artillery preparation, allowing the novel to connect the scale of the offensive with one soldier’s knowledge that the coming assault may be fatal.