Private Daniel Hodgekiss was a Ngarrindjeri man from Port Willunga, South Australia. He enlisted in Mildura, Victoria, in 1916.
He distinguished himself at Villers-Bretonneux on the night of 24 April 1918 when the 59th Battalion was advancing against heavy machinegun fire. One enemy gun, located near a haystack, caused heavy losses and stopped part of the advance until ‘a daring soldier, Private Hodgekiss, ran around the stack and killed the gunner’ and the advance could continue.
The following month, Hodgekiss was severely wounded in the right leg and hospitalised in the United Kingdom. Medically unfit, he undertook repatriation training in using a shearing machine, but had little time to use his knowledge. He returned to Australia in late 1919 and died, prematurely as a result of his war service, in 1924.
His unmarked grave in Mildura Cemetery was found by a local researcher and officially recognised in 2012.
Private Daniel Hodgekiss 1918
Hupp, Somme, France
photographer unknown
REPRODUCED COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
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